gdk pixmap routines speed [Was: GTK widget: Round dial]

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel nuclecu unam mx>]

> One thing that gdk does need is much faster
> gdk_pixmap_create_from_xpm()
> 	  and
> gdk_pixmap_create_from_xpm_d()
> functions - they are way too slow. I'll bet imlib has a something you can
> drop in to replace this and quadruple performance...? ;)

Agreed.  The current implementation take about 1 second to execute on
a 486 to load a 48x48 pixmap.

On an 433Mhz/Alpha, loading 50 bitmaps takes about 5 seconds.

Someone told me that the xpm support on gdk at some point used
libXpm.  Is there any chance to put this code back in gtk?  We could
add an autoconf test and use Xpm if available, otherwise the slow
implementations are used.

best wishes,
Miguel.