[Python-checkins] viewcvs speed (was: Insanity!)

[Greg Stein]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Fredrik Lundh wrote:
>...
> > Wouldn't it make much more sense to not send *any* diffs, but install
> > view-cvs.py or whatever it's called on *.python.org?
> 
> it's already there: http://cvs.python.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/
> 
> but clicking around in there takes ages.

viewcvs.cgi is about 2300 lines of Python code. Unfortunately, it gets
parsed on each CGI invocation. There are two alternatives:

1) tiny stub which imports a module to do the work (with the hope that the
   resulting .pyc can be cached)
2) use my Python-in-a-script approach at:
      http://www.lyra.org/greg/python/index.html#dev

The former is harder for people to install. The latter is neat, but would
be harder for people to tweak the source and regenerate.

As a result, I decided to leave viewcvs.cgi as one big honker file that
makes it a real piece of cake for installation, editing, and use. But it
runs a bit slower :-)

Note: I think it is also the cvs.python.org machine. I get good speed on
my box (Linux, K6 200MHz).

>  maybe the script
> could be tweaked to include complete URL's instead of diffs,
> if the diff is larger than, say, 50 lines.  e.g:
> 
> http://cvs.python.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/dist/src/Lib/bisect.py?rev=1.4&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

Ooh. Sweet idea! In fact, I think that I'm gonna go and update my system
here to do that. Thanx!

However: I still woult NOT recommend omitting the diffs. I think our goal
is to increase the ease and propability that people will actually review
the checkins. Throwing a barrier in there such as "you must go use 'cvs
diff' to see the change" or "go use viewcvs to see it" or whatever, will
just serve to raise the barrier for a review. As long as notification and
change are wrapped into a single email, then our barrier is lower and
we'll get more eyeballs looking at the changes.

> > Or otherwise: remove the feature, and reinstate it when someone has gotten
> > 'round to implement a sane version.
> 
> or force everyone to get a cable modem ;-)
> 
> (maybe we could trick Barry into adding some kind of "optional
> filter" mechanism to mailman, so people can pick their favourite
> format?)

I've been wanting to send out the checkin email as an HTML email. The
things you could do! But Barry chastised me heavily for even mentioning
that. I don't think he likes HTML email :-)

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/