GDB startup

[Nick Roberts]

 > I see a significant delay when I start M-x gdb, where the *gdb*
 > buffer is shown with most of the gdb's startup output displayed, except for
 > the prompt.  After about 10s, the prompt finally shows up.
 > 
 > I suspect it's due to the new feature "go through all buffers and ask the
 > gdb subprocess whether it should be put in gud-gdb-minor-mode".  I have many
 > buffers open, so I guess this loop takes a while.
 > 
 > Would it be possible to "do it in the background", maybe?

I'm not sure what you mean. GDB runs asynchronously from Emacs, so all
commands sent to it *do* run in the background. Maybe, because there is so
much input and output, you can't get the prompt so it feels like its running
in foreground.

Presumably a lot of your buffers aren't visible which makes me wonder whether
its possible to have a when-buffer-becomes-visible-hook?

A more practical solution might be to limit the number of buffers/files (its
probably the latter which takes most time) that Emacs considers. Clearly, what
is a sensible number would depend on the speed of the computer (I think that
perhaps you have a clunky machine). Generally, how many buffers do you have
open with files in them?


Nick