On Friday 22 May 2009 12:41:20 pm Robert Neumann wrote:
> Thankx for the very nice advice, especially the sarcastic note!
> I write books with about 250 pages and 10 pic. On the "old" Lyx it takes
> around 25 sec. to produce a pdf, on the newer lyx it takes around 40 sec.
> When I do the final work I have to produce quite a lot of pdfs to check
> the pages. So just give it a try and count twenty times to 40... this is
> very hard to stand.
> So, thats why I HAVE to use the old Lyx and I hope somebody has a better
> advice...
> Regards
> Robert
Hi Robert,
The fact that you have two different versions of Linux running is a
troubleshooting advantage, because you can exploit the differences. I would
pay particular attention to EXACTLY HOW LyX is compiled to PDF. It could be
that your 1.3.4 is set up to do the conversion differently, which could
account for its speedier performance AND its pixellation.
One way you can put more of the variables in your own hands is to make a
shellscript to do the conversion -- something like this:
#!/bin/bash
StyleFile=rl_21.ist
LyxCmd=lyx-1.5.6
rm -f $1.aux
rm -f $1.dvi
rm -f $1.ps
rm -f $1.pdf
rm -f $1.idx
rm -f $1.ilg
rm -f $1.ind
rm -f $1.log
rm -f $1.tex
rm -f $1.toc
$LyxCmd --export latex $1.lyx
latex $1.tex
if test -f $StyleFile; then
makeindex -s $StyleFile $1.idx
else
makeindex $1.idx
fi
if grep -qi "error" $1.ilg; then
echo ERROR: Inspect $1.ilg and $1.ind!
gvim $1.ilg $1.ind
echo ERROR: Inspect $1.ilg and $1.ind!
else
latex $1.tex
dvips -o $1.ps $1.dvi
# ps2pdf $1.ps
ps2pdf12 $1.ps
# xpdf $1.pdf &
fi
Anyway, theoretically if you use this shellscript on both LyX versions you're
doing the same thing and any discrepancy should be due to the LyX version.
You can run timing tests on each process to see what's really gobbling up
your time. Your goal is to get something with your current 1.3.4's speed and
later LyX's faithful graphical rendering.
I used 1.3.4 for a long time. It was stable, robust, and it still used my pet
interface xforms /* Litt ducks and runs */. But 1.3.4 didn't have character
styles, and in my opinion if it doesn't have character styles, it's not
really styles-based -- it's fingerpainting. I'd recommend you find a way to
make 1.5x or 1.6x perform as quickly as 1.3.4 did. Just find out what's
gobbling your time, and find a way to optimize it.
HTH
SteveT
Steve Litt
Recession Relief Package
http://www.recession-relief.US
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt
