Comments on: How to output PDF, DOC, and RTF formats: The solution http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution/ spiritual entrepreneurship, personal growth, internet, food, politics. Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:13:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Malte http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution/comment-page-1/#comment-1161 Malte Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:26:09 +0000 http://pinds.com/2007/07/27/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution#comment-1161 I can only relate to this experience. We are using OO to produce PDF documents out of OpenACS and it takes around 5 seconds to spit it out. What I don't see though is the need for a background process. And to my experience, if an OpenOffice process is running already, the new execution actually takes the ressources of the running process and prints. At least converting three documents at the same time only takes 5+2+2 seconds, so the second invocation seems to be faster. I can only relate to this experience. We are using OO to produce PDF documents out of OpenACS and it takes around 5 seconds to spit it out.

What I don’t see though is the need for a background process. And to my experience, if an OpenOffice process is running already, the new execution actually takes the ressources of the running process and prints. At least converting three documents at the same time only takes 5+2+2 seconds, so the second invocation seems to be faster.

]]> By: Lars Pind http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution/comment-page-1/#comment-1162 Lars Pind Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:26:09 +0000 http://pinds.com/2007/07/27/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution#comment-1162 The reason I do a background thread is so I don't have to tie up a process on the server for the whole duration. I only have 6 concurrent connections (I could up that number, but don't need to), so holding on to such a connection for more than a fraction of a second is undesirable. By running it in the background, the browser can just check once per half second or so whether it's done, and that request takes less than 1/100th of a second to process. Also, by running it in a background process, it's trivial to assure it doesn't try to run concurrently. Remember, Rails isn't threaded like AOLserver. The reason I do a background thread is so I don’t have to tie up a process on the server for the whole duration. I only have 6 concurrent connections (I could up that number, but don’t need to), so holding on to such a connection for more than a fraction of a second is undesirable. By running it in the background, the browser can just check once per half second or so whether it’s done, and that request takes less than 1/100th of a second to process.

Also, by running it in a background process, it’s trivial to assure it doesn’t try to run concurrently. Remember, Rails isn’t threaded like AOLserver.

]]> By: B http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution/comment-page-1/#comment-1163 B Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:26:09 +0000 http://pinds.com/2007/07/27/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution#comment-1163 What did you do about OO's reliance upon X? What did you do about OO’s reliance upon X?

]]> By: Lars Pind http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution/comment-page-1/#comment-1164 Lars Pind Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:26:09 +0000 http://pinds.com/2007/07/27/how-to-output-pdf-doc-and-rtf-formats-the-solution#comment-1164 Who's B? Who’s B?

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