rokicki@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (03/02/90)
> Gee Tom, I'm surprised you didn't mention the loop mode of AmigaTeX. >Just what the Dr. ordered. Thanks for mentioning that. It's not a total solution, but the idea is good. The Amiga version of TeX can run as a `server', where it is always in memory, ready for the next TeX job that comes along. Immediately after finishing a specific job, it `reloads' the format file and then waits for the next job. In addition, rather than loading the format file from disk each time, mutable parts of the format file are `shadowed' in memory so they can quickly be copied back in, causing all format file loads after the first to not hit the disk. This provides a very quick TeX environment. Time to load the actual program, initialize, and load the format file `disappears'; with a resident previewer that keeps fonts around, you can go from an editor version of a TeX document to a previewed first page in under a second and with only a single keystroke, even on a 68000 machine running from floppies, if the page isn't complex. This is easier to do on the Amiga than on other machines, because of the true multitasking and interprocess communication, but similar tricks can be used on even a lowly PC. With the ultrafast workstations commonly available, these optimizations are no longer as important, in some sense. But things like this can make a small computer very comfortable as a TeX workstation. So now you know why the time of `a minute' was so horrifying to me. -tom