[R-sig-Debian] R slower after etch->lenny upgrade

[Charles Plessy]

Le Tue, Dec 08, 2009 at 09:06:56AM -0700, Gary Hodges a écrit :
> Gary Hodges wrote:
>> Hi.  Last week I updated from 32 bit etch to 32 bit lenny on an AMD SMP 
>> machine.  I first cloned the system disk to an identical drive, and  
>> updated the cloned drive.  I still have the etch install untouched on  
>> the previous drive, which has allowed me to do some testing.  After the 
>> update R has slowed down significantly.  A user brought this to my  
>> attention, and at this point we have only tested one script (multiple  
>> times, different days).

> Update:  We just tried something a little different.  My colleague's  
> script writes output to the screen.  I suggested writing to pdf files  
> instead and it ran much faster; comparable to the speeds on etch.  So at  
> this point I'm guessing this is not a R issue per se, but an issue with  
> graphics.

Dear Gary,

I think that between Etch and Lenny, R switched its default rendering system to
use the Cairo library, which provides anti-aliasing and other improvements.
This rendering system is slower than the previous system, Xlib. Maybe you can
try your comparison using ‘type = "Xlib"’ when you open X11() or png() devices.

Best regards,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan