Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot • Hacker News Board

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#11

Post by Klathmon » Thu, May 04, 2017, 11:55 AM UTC

matttproud wrote: post #10

ianlevesque wrote: post #9

So this is basically the emacs startup hack? Ugh.

I was just going to remark, those that don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

What's wrong with the emacs startup hack that makes it something that's not worth repeating (and improving upon)?

To me it seems like a fantastic way to improve startup time regardless of language or ecosystem.

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#12

Post by CyberDildonics » Thu, May 04, 2017, 12:07 PM UTC

spiderfarmer wrote: post #4

astrodust wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get to work on a Webassembly compiler and your wish might be granted. http://webassembly.org

The Tanks demo makes my CPU hurt (15" rMBP, Firefox). Why is WebGL still so heavy on the CPU?

It takes up about 2 percent of my 7 year old cpu in chrome. It is also compiled from Unity, so was not made from C++ directly.

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#13

Post by beaconstudios » Thu, May 04, 2017, 12:11 PM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #9

So this is basically the emacs startup hack? Ugh.

for those of us who aren't familiar - what's the emacs startup hack, and why is is detrimental?

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#14

Post by predakanga » Thu, May 04, 2017, 1:26 PM UTC

beaconstudios wrote: post #13

ianlevesque wrote: post #9

So this is basically the emacs startup hack? Ugh.

for those of us who aren't familiar - what's the emacs startup hack, and why is is detrimental?

The emacs startup hack is in it's use of a glibc function called "unexec", which essentially serializes the program's state into a single binary which can later be executed normally.

One of the big downsides (and the reason it became well known) is it's lack of portability, as it requires in-depth knowledge of the system's memory structures.

LWN article and previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11001796 Somewhat lower-level article that shines some light: http://emacshorrors.com/posts/unexecute.html

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#15

Post by amelius » Thu, May 04, 2017, 2:17 PM UTC

Sorry, but what an incredible kludge.

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#16

Post by jackmott » Thu, May 04, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

There are only so many brain cells on earth, can we stop using them to make javascript things on the desktop slightly less slow? Let's just not use it.

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#17

Post by roryisok » Thu, May 04, 2017, 2:36 PM UTC

jackmott wrote: post #16

There are only so many brain cells on earth, can we stop using them to make javascript things on the desktop slightly less slow? Let's just not use it.

You think that's a waste of brain power? By 2014 humans had collectively spent 200,000 years playing angry birds. That was 3 years ago, and I'm sure pokemon go has at least tripled that record by now. Between than and all other video games we've probably spent in the tens of millions of years button mashing, if not the hundreds.

But yeah lets stop people trying to make JavaScript faster

Re: Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot

#18

Post by spiderfarmer » Sun, May 07, 2017, 7:16 PM UTC

josh64 wrote: post #7

spiderfarmer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tanks demo makes my CPU hurt (15" rMBP, Firefox). Why is WebGL still so heavy on the CPU?

It works fine on my 2011 15" macbook pro with Firefox 54.0b4. I wonder if it is the high retina resolution thats the problem for you?

It might be because the macbook is also driving a 4k display at the same time.