On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Tom Rathborne <tomr@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Why can't those scripts just _not_register_themselves_ if the required > modules are not available? gimpmagick does this and the only problem > is that it has to be re-probed every time the GIMP starts. The only > reason I can think of to not install these scripts is to avoid the > delay at startup. Yes, and this "only reason" is quite significant for me. On a multi-user system that mounts all Gimp files over NFS, querying all plug-ins and scripts at startup takes more than 40 seconds (depending on the network and server load) with a default installation of 1.1.18. This is much too slow, but fortunately this is a one-time thing and after that everything runs smoothly. After the first run, the Gimp starts in about 10 seconds (5 of these are taken by Script-Fu). If more scripts would be queried every time at startup, the delay in starting the Gimp would be unacceptable. Fortunately the situation is a bit better on a single-user system or a system which has all files on a local disk, but I think that any additional delays during startup should be avoided. This means that it is better to skip the installation of a script or plug-in that has some unsatisfied dependencies than to install it anyway at the expense of some additional startup delays. -Raphael
