07 May 2004 Friday

rebuild times in MT

well, here’s a subject of popular discussion about Movable Type: slow, lagging, unhappy rebuild times. okay, so… i’ve looked into the matter a little bit (ie searched google for other people’s blog entries referring to this problem. by the way.. i don’t think i really noticed it as a problem until i read everyone’s unhappinesses with it. and now that i notice it, and have timed it, it does seem pretty bad, with potential to get pretty worse…)

the time of writing this comes right after i (yesterday) learned of the magic that is MTInclude. it’s happy. so i implemented it quickly in a few spots on this site… and the truth is i don’t know if that suddenly jacked up my rebuild time. all i know is that i finally timed it today, and the final stopwatch count for rebuilding all my MT files comes to anywhere between (i timed it 6 or 7 times..): 1 minute and 05 seconds to 1 minute and 40 seconds. and i understand it will only get worse with each new entry added to the archive. okay, so there are a couple solutions i’ve read about, that i will, right now, implement:
i came across a striking entry that suggested the symptoms of “MovableType-itis” might be eased by killing the ’$’ signs in one’s MT tags. well. first of all, to show you how dedicated i am to reading instructions, i’d been wondering for a while now why sometimes MT tags were written and sometimes <$MTEntryBody$>. it turns out, as noted in the Movable Type Manual (would you like at that—it’s right there, first thing, at the very top. heh)—turns out that those $ characters are totally optional. humph. well then, away they go. and let’s check the rebuild time now…

...i broke my site.

rebuild times and other attempted efficiencies will have to wait. right now it’s just improvement that i’m able to post new entries again.