[OS X TeX] What kind of operation is TeXing? (concerning hardware)

[Herb Schulz]

On 2/5/05 8:34 AM, "Herb Schulz" <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:

> 
> Howdy,
> 
> You've got to compile from the Command Line and redirect the output from
> pdflatex to /dev/null, the bit bucket.
> 
> time pdflatex source2e >/dev/nul
> 
> is the full command line command. The screen output takes quite a bit of
> time. On my 550MHz Powerbook it took 38s... Sigh...
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest.com)
> 

Howdy,

Let's see now... I've added 512MB of RAM to my PowerBook 550MHZ G4; up to
1GB now. I've also put in a new drive, the Fujitsu 80GB 5400RPM drive
recommended on this list, from a stock 30GB 4200RPM drive. In general
programs load faster and I get very little swapping now; the system feels
snappier when loading off the HD and if I have lots of programs open at
once. Best of all is the silence of the HD and all the extra space for more
photos.

I just re-ran the ``time pdflatex source2e >/dev/null'' (3rd run) and got
the same results. It appears that the bottleneck is not RAM or HD
performance but shear processor power that is needed for this job to get
done quickly.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest.com)

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