Compiling wxContribItems faster using wx/wxprec.h PCH

[stahta01]

I was trying to speed up the building of wxSmith; but, I am failing. (2000 line patch with only 12% faster time.)

Decided to try speeding up building wxContribItems on Windows 7 32-bit using wxWidgets 2.8 branch with TDM GCC 4.7.1

It was taking about 40 Minutes to build before changes; after it takes about 8 minutes.

This is when using a Precompiled Header (PCH) "wx/wxprec.h"; anyone know of a good location to store this header in CB or wxWidgets.

In CB, I think .objs\include\wx\wxprec.h.gch is a good location; anyone have a better suggestion?
In wxWidgets I am testing this location "lib\gcc_dll\mswu\external\wx\wxprec.h.gch"

I need to decide on a good location before I can make a patch worth turning in.

Tim S.

[ollydbg]

I was trying to speed up the building of wxSmith; but, I am failing. (2000 line patch with only 12% faster time.)

Decided to try speeding up building wxContribItems on Windows 7 32-bit using wxWidgets 2.8 branch with TDM GCC 4.7.1

It was taking about 40 Minutes to build before changes; after it takes about 8 minutes.

Good work!
So, the bottleneck is wxContribItems, right?

This is when using a Precompiled Header (PCH) "wx/wxprec.h"; anyone know of a good location to store this header in CB or wxWidgets.

In CB, I think .objs\include\wx\wxprec.h.gch is a good location; anyone have a better suggestion?
In wxWidgets I am testing this location "lib\gcc_dll\mswu\external\wx\wxprec.h.gch"

I need to decide on a good location before I can make a patch worth turning in.

Tim S.

I think the pch file can put directly C::B's build folder, so it should be: .objs\include\wxprec.h.gch, just beside other two gches.

[stahta01]

...

I think the pch file can put directly C::B's build folder, so it should be: .objs\include\wxprec.h.gch, just beside other two gches.

I think it has to be inside a folder called "wx"; because all the places using it like this

Code

#include <wx/wxprec.h>

Edit: Can you be sure it will work not being inside a wx folder? Never tried it, myself.
Edit2: I will try and see if it works; I just thought is was not doable that way.

Edit3: Oops, I just realized I need to re-test because I changed Global Var cb_release_type from -g to -O2 this might be why its faster.
Edit4: Re-test still shows a great improvement. Working on patch. NOTE: I have no idea how to verify the binaries of wxContribItems are valid.

Tim S.

[stahta01]

Patches to improve the compile time for wxContribItems.
NOTE: I have NOT tested the Binaries produced by wxContribItems project.
NOTE: I still need to test src/include/wxprec.h under wxWidgets 3.0. Removed the PCH building Stuff.

Adds target  cleanPCH.
Adds a modified wxprec.h file needed to create the wxWidgets PCH file.
Any suggestions on another way to create the wxWidgets PCH file?

Re-did; removed the wxWidgets PCH stuff; the speedup seems NOT to be worth doing.

Code

Index: src/CodeBlocks.cbp
===================================================================
--- src/CodeBlocks.cbp	(revision 9434)
+++ src/CodeBlocks.cbp	(working copy)
@@ -709,6 +709,15 @@
 					<Mode after="always" />
 				</ExtraCommands>
 			</Target>
+			<Target title="cleanPCH">
+				<Option type="4" />
+				<Option compiler="gcc" />
+				<ExtraCommands>
+					<Add after="cmd /c if exist  .objs\include\sdk_precomp.h.gch del  .objs\include\sdk_precomp.h.gch" />
+					<Add after="cmd /c if exist  .objs\include\sdk.h.gch del  .objs\include\sdk.h.gch" />
+					<Mode after="always" />
+				</ExtraCommands>
+			</Target>
 			<Environment>
 				<Variable name="WX_CFG" value="" />
 				<Variable name="WX_SUFFIX" value="u" />
Index: src/CodeBlocks_wx30.cbp
===================================================================
--- src/CodeBlocks_wx30.cbp	(revision 9435)
+++ src/CodeBlocks_wx30.cbp	(working copy)
@@ -710,6 +710,15 @@
 					<Mode after="always" />
 				</ExtraCommands>
 			</Target>
+			<Target title="cleanPCH">
+				<Option type="4" />
+				<Option compiler="gcc" />
+				<ExtraCommands>
+					<Add after="cmd /c if exist  .objs30\include\sdk_precomp.h.gch del  .objs30\include\sdk_precomp.h.gch" />
+					<Add after="cmd /c if exist  .objs30\include\sdk.h.gch del  .objs30\include\sdk.h.gch" />
+					<Mode after="always" />
+				</ExtraCommands>
+			</Target>
 			<Environment>
 				<Variable name="WX_CFG" value="" />
 				<Variable name="WX_SUFFIX" value="u" />

Modifies the wxContribItems project to use the PCH wxprec.h from prior patch.
(The PCH use Modification requires changing WXMAKINGDLL to WXUSINGDLL)
NOTE: The Binary objects are much smaller after applying this patch; it may have the side effect of reducing the symbols exported from wxWidgets headers.

NOTE: The targets KWIC and wxTreeList do NOT use the PCH header because they have no support for doing so in the code.
FYI: The KWIC has some support added at the wxCode site.


Edit: Based on more in-depth code review these targets are NOT currently safe to do the PCH use mod.
wxImagePanel
wxKwic                     Note: The upstream code looks link it will support changing WXMAKINGDLL to WXUSINGDLL
wxSpeedButton
wxTreeList



Re-did Patch removed the PCH search folder; still needs more testing; changing WXMAKINGDLL to WXUSINGDLL was nearly all the compile speedup.

Code

Index: src/plugins/contrib/wxContribItems/wxContribItems.cbp
===================================================================
--- src/plugins/contrib/wxContribItems/wxContribItems.cbp	(revision 9436)
+++ src/plugins/contrib/wxContribItems/wxContribItems.cbp	(working copy)
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
 					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL_FNB" />
+					<Add option="-DWXUSINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxFlatNotebook/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 			</Target>
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
 					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL_CHART" />
+					<Add option="-DWXUSINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxchart/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 			</Target>
@@ -40,6 +42,7 @@
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
 					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL_THINGS" />
+					<Add option="-DWXUSINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxthings/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 			</Target>
@@ -51,6 +54,7 @@
 				<Option compiler="gcc" />
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
+					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxImagePanel/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 				<Linker>
@@ -64,6 +68,9 @@
 				<Option type="3" />
 				<Option compiler="gcc" />
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
+				<Compiler>
+					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL" />
+				</Compiler>
 				<Linker>
 					<Add option="-Wl,--export-all-symbols" />
 				</Linker>
@@ -76,6 +83,7 @@
 				<Option compiler="gcc" />
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
+					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="KWIC/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 				<Linker>
@@ -90,6 +98,7 @@
 				<Option compiler="gcc" />
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
+					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxTreeList/include" />
 				</Compiler>
 			</Target>
@@ -101,6 +110,8 @@
 				<Option compiler="gcc" />
 				<Option createStaticLib="1" />
 				<Compiler>
+					<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL_GIZMOS" />
+					<Add option="-DWXUSINGDLL" />
 					<Add directory="wxled/ledpanel/include" />
 					<Add directory="wxled/lcdWindow/include" />
 					<Add directory="wxled/led/include" />
@@ -127,7 +138,6 @@
 			<Add option="-Winvalid-pch" />
 			<Add option="-DHAVE_W32API_H" />
 			<Add option="-D__WXMSW__" />
-			<Add option="-DWXMAKINGDLL" />
 			<Add option="-DwxUSE_UNICODE" />
 			<Add directory="$(#wx.include)" />
 			<Add directory="$(#wx.lib)/gcc_dll$(WX_CFG)/msw$(WX_SUFFIX)" />

Tim S.