Quote:
Originally Posted by blastyblast
By the way, I'm a software designer... is there anything I can do to help the project?  |
Sure. Lots of things. One would be to work out where in the SW your installation is spending its time.
I have test libraries of 2000 books, and have never seen a startup time longer than 30 seconds to the 'hi there' message (usually 20 after a reboot, usually 5-10 thereafter) and 20 seconds more to the GUI (usually 5 to 10). On my production library (1000 books) I see the similar numbers. These are eminently explainable, given the SW and data storage architecture.
The wild variance in reported timings are probably configuration specific (O/S, version, ulimit settings, caching setup on storage, network latencies, anti-virus, what-have-you). What these are and their effects are next to impossible to work out remotely. And in my case, not having the problem, I don't have much incentive to look for solutions.
I don't doubt that you are seeing something different. The question is why, a question you are best equipped to answer. The next question will be whether something can/should be done about 'it', but that question must wait until the reasons are well understood.
Edit: in reference to configuration-specific factors, one user reported dramatic performance improvements by defragging his disk.
Thread is here.
Edit 2: Just to beat a dead horse: I created a 5000 book library by copying my 1000 book library 5 times without merging enabled. I checked to see that I indeed did have 5000 books. I rebooted to eliminate all caching behavior, waited for the machine was fully booted (dropbox done etc), then started calibre.
Time to splash: 9 seconds. Time to GUI running: 28 seconds. Reported startup time: 18.5 seconds, consistent with the 28 - 9.
Quit and immediately started again, to check cache effectiveness. Time to splash: 3 seconds. Time to start: 7 seconds. Reported startup time: 3.25 seconds.
This test demonstrates two things. 1) there is nothing fundamentally wrong, and 2) your mileage will vary.
Configuration: O/S: Win7 Pro x32, Mem: 4GB, Proc: Intel i5/750 at 2.6GHz (not overclocked), Disk: WD 500gb SATA II @ 7200rpm. Graphics, dvd, case, cooling, power, & network are irrelevant.