commit 22511c41d55a38a770541ae617a09383d5e6ad1c
from: NRK <nrk@disroot.org>
via: Hiltjo Posthuma <hiltjo@codemadness.org>
date: Fri Mar 25 21:49:07 2022 UTC

drw_text: improve performance when there's no match

this was the last piece of the puzzle, the case where we can't find any
font to draw the codepoint.

in such cases, we use XftFontMatch() which is INSANELY slow. but that's
not the real problem. the real problem was we were continuously trying
to match the same thing over and over again.

this patch introduces a small cache, which keeps track a couple
codepoints for which we know we won't find any matches.

with this, i can dump lots of emojies into dmenu where some of them
don't have any matching font, and still not have dmenu lag insanely or
FREEZE completely when scrolling up and down.

this also improves startup time, which will of course depend on the
system and all installed fonts; but on my system and test case i see the
following startup time drop:

before -> after
60ms   -> 34ms

commit - 77526f756e23e362081ac807521f901f2e5cd5e6
commit + 22511c41d55a38a770541ae617a09383d5e6ad1c
blob - 7d985b188407c3e86a5c227530c5dad2fb4f300c
blob + a50c9ee0545db977ab4b9afbe49955cdddddbda4
--- drw.c
+++ drw.c
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ drw_rect(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsig
 int
 drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lpad, const char *text, int invert)
 {
-	int ty, ellipsis_x = 0;
+	int i, ty, ellipsis_x = 0;
 	unsigned int tmpw, ew, ellipsis_w = 0, ellipsis_len, ellipsis_width;
 	XftDraw *d = NULL;
 	Fnt *usedfont, *curfont, *nextfont;
@@ -263,6 +263,9 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsig
 	FcPattern *match;
 	XftResult result;
 	int charexists = 0, overflow = 0;
+	/* keep track of a couple codepoints for which we have no match. */
+	enum { nomatches_len = 64 };
+	static struct { long codepoint[nomatches_len]; unsigned int idx; } nomatches;
 
 	if (!drw || (render && !drw->scheme) || !text || !drw->fonts)
 		return 0;
@@ -346,6 +349,12 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsig
 			 * character must be drawn. */
 			charexists = 1;
 
+			for (i = 0; i < nomatches_len; ++i) {
+				/* avoid calling XftFontMatch if we know we won't find a match */
+				if (utf8codepoint == nomatches.codepoint[i])
+					goto no_match;
+			}
+
 			fccharset = FcCharSetCreate();
 			FcCharSetAddChar(fccharset, utf8codepoint);
 
@@ -374,6 +383,8 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsig
 					curfont->next = usedfont;
 				} else {
 					xfont_free(usedfont);
+					nomatches.codepoint[++nomatches.idx % nomatches_len] = utf8codepoint;
+no_match:
 					usedfont = drw->fonts;
 				}
 			}