Re: Speeding up Emacs load time

[Bob Proulx]

Emanuel Berg wrote:
> OK, this is one way to think. There is another way to think. The
> other way to think is: one second at x does not equal one second
> at y. When you start Emacs, you are not in a rush. You make sure
> you work place is organized. You fetch water, books. You relax you
> shoulders. Whatever. Here, you do have time to wait.

This may be your work flow.  Which is great.  But it is not my work
flow.  I routinely log into one server or another one.  I need to edit
a file.  This type of workflow has been discussed extensively here
before.  I launch emacs there.  I am blocked waiting for emacs to load
before I can go to the next step.  When emacs took too long to load
then I would always use vi for those edits.  For short edits vi is
okay.  But often I would find myself missing a feature of emacs.

Now I can log in, edit with emacs, and not be disrupted.  Using tramp
from some central location is also much too slow and disruptive.  And
not just during the startup but every time it saves and at other sync
points in the flow.  Plus there are some times when I cannot easily
use tramp from a central desktop because the network topology is
designed to prevent it.  (Not my choice.)

> However, when you are attentively at work, and you have one million
> thoughts in your head at once, you just need to bring up some Emacs
> functionality with a minimal delay. Here, time is much more
> important. It is like the super-focused people playing ice hockey or
> sparring for a boxing fight - for them, 10 seconds is like an
> eternity. When you, as a programmer, reaches that highest peak of
> productivity/focus, you don't want to load any modules, possible
> creating havoc, that (at worst) could take you from what you were
> doing. Super-focus, once lost, cannot easily be recovered. So, my
> piece of advice: be safe, first load everything safe and sound, then
> do your worst to the actual problem you try so solve, with minimal
> interference.

And that is exactly how I feel when emacs takes a long time to load.
And why for me it has become important that it start up with a
reasonable amount of speed.

I also have a desktop and I always have an emacs running there.  I use
it for tasks around the desktop in the same way as you do.  But
depending upon what I am needing to do that is either 10% or 90% of my
work.  When it is 90% that is great.  But when it is 10% then it is
not so great.

There isn't always one size that fits everyone.  And it is a tragedy
when there is only one size available and it doesn't fit.

Bob