[Python-Dev] Python startup time

[Paul Moore]

On 21 July 2017 at 23:53, David Mertz <mertz at gnosis.cx> wrote:
> I would guess that Windows users don't tend to run lots of command line
> tools where startup time dominates, as *nix users do.

Well, in the sense that many Windows users don't use the command line
at all, this is true. However, startup time is a definite problem for
Windows users who *do* use the command line, because process creation
cost is a lot higher than on Unix, so starting new commands is
*already* costly, and therefore minimising additional overhead is
crucial.

It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem - Windows users avoid
excessive command line program invocation because startup time is
high, so no-one optimises startup time because Windows users don't use
short-lived command line programs. But I'm seeing a trend away from
that - more and more Windows tools these days seem to be comfortable
spawning subprocesses. I don't know what prompted that trend.

Paul