RE: Split `simple.el'?

[Drew Adams]

> > But not until that part of the file is actually rendered.
> 
> Yes, of course (though redisplay many times looks also at characters a
> short ways above or below what will be visible).  Do we have any
> evidence that in this case the slowdown happens also when the
> problematic part of the file is nowhere near the visible part of the
> buffer?

Does it count as such evidence that visiting simple.el
(which shows only the beginning of the file, once it shows
anything) does nothing but show a blank Emacs window for
two minutes?  It's not trying to display the chars of
that defcustom value - that text is nowhere near the
part of the buffer that (eventually) is shown (at the
beginning of the file).