Hannu Kotipalo wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi!
The only program I use at windows on home is wzebra, a windows based reversi game (http://www.nada.kth.se/~gunnar/othello.html). (linux version coming, but it's binary only :-()
Unfortunately current wine version needs over 10 minutes time to start the program! In windows, starting time is just a few seconds. I found out that the source of the delay was a database file (opening book file), which wzebra reads in by a few byte packets. Fortunately wzebra itself measures the time needed for the readout.
Since wine has a lot of overhead for opening and closing unix filesystem for every packet, the delay is understandable (but not acceptable!).
Of course, buffering helps. I made a Quick-and-dirty 1k buffer for just ReadFile - routine and database readout dropped from over 800 seconds down to 12-13 seconds! (On my 200 Mhz Pentium Pro)
I think this should be fixed in a more sophisticated way, so I did not yet post my patch. Also, this patch helps only on this particular problem; reading a file by small packets with ReadFile. However, I noticed that wzebra reads even bitmaps on byte by one... Don't know how usual this is, thought.
In addition, I do not have too much time for playing with this. If someone is interested in continuing my work, please mail me, I can reply by sending the patch.
Please submit the patch/hack to wine-patches for comments/review. I think that at least I would try the patch out, Since a speed up is always welcome.
-- Tony Lambregts
