Okay, so last night I tried to install 2.5.4.1 on my Ubuntu laptop and failed because of the locale problem mentioned in a previous thread. Before that I had been running 2.5.3.1. After the failed 2.5.4.1, I decided to try to do the 'apt-get install wxpython' route to see how that works (very very easy). It installed 2.5.3.2pre and I noticed that it ran a little bit faster. Specifically, in an unscientific test, here is the same code (code creates 64 buttons, among other things) running 5 trials on each of 2.5.3.1, 2.5.3.2pre, and 2.5.4.1:
2.5.3.1 built from source:
Board created in 0.234668 second(s).
Board created in 0.235856 second(s).
Board created in 0.234943 second(s).
Board created in 0.233716 second(s).
Board created in 0.233644 second(s).
2.5.3.2pre deb package:
Board created in 0.194601 second(s).
Board created in 0.195197 second(s).
Board created in 0.193362 second(s).
Board created in 0.201745 second(s).
Board created in 0.196982 second(s).
2.5.4.1 built from source:
Board created in 0.243266 second(s).
Board created in 0.235320 second(s).
Board created in 0.236323 second(s).
Board created in 0.233486 second(s).
Board created in 0.238897 second(s).
Would you say the time difference is accounted for by the fact that when I build from source I include "--enable-debug" in the configuration?
Okay, so last night I tried to install 2.5.4.1 on my Ubuntu laptop and failed because of the locale problem mentioned in a previous thread. Before that I had been running 2.5.3.1. After the failed 2.5.4.1, I decided to try to do the 'apt-get install wxpython' route to see how that works (very very easy). It installed 2.5.3.2pre and I noticed that it ran a little bit faster. Specifically, in an unscientific test, here is the same code (code creates 64 buttons, among other things) running 5 trials on each of 2.5.3.1, 2.5.3.2pre, and 2.5.4.1:
2.5.3.1 built from source:
Board created in 0.234668 second(s).
Board created in 0.235856 second(s).
Board created in 0.234943 second(s).
Board created in 0.233716 second(s).
Board created in 0.233644 second(s).
2.5.3.2pre deb package:
Board created in 0.194601 second(s).
Board created in 0.195197 second(s).
Board created in 0.193362 second(s).
Board created in 0.201745 second(s).
Board created in 0.196982 second(s).
2.5.4.1 built from source:
Board created in 0.243266 second(s).
Board created in 0.235320 second(s).
Board created in 0.236323 second(s).
Board created in 0.233486 second(s).
Board created in 0.238897 second(s).
Would you say the time difference is accounted for by the fact that when I build from source I include "--enable-debug" in the configuration?
Yep. Or more specifically it is probably --enable-debug_flag which is automatically turned on by --enable-debug. The debug_flag option turns on the extra runtime asserts in the wxWidgets code that I turn into wx.PyAssertionError exceptions. Without that code things will run a bit faster because those conditions are not being tested, but you could end up with a hard crash instead of an exception.
They may also be using compile options for the deb that do more agressive code optimizations than are done by default.
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Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman http://wxPython.org Java give you jitters? Relax with wxPython!