# 10-15 minute TTFP with Plots.jl... Please help

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/10-15-minute-ttfp-with-plots-jl-please-help/92636>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** ttfp\
**Created:** [January 7, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/10-15-minute-ttfp-with-plots-jl-please-help/92636 "2023-01-07T14:58:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 23

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**Author:** ![Lilith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lilith/32/27492_2.png) [@Lilith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Lilith)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/10-15-minute-ttfp-with-plots-jl-please-help/92636/23 "2023-01-07T20:54:06Z")

</div>

> [@jebej](#):
>
> Maybe you could just use an other plotting package.

I might 💔. But this solution doesn’t generalize because there are other packages with precompile times that are too long to wait through daily or multiple times a day which do not have ready alternatives in other languages (e.g. Zygote/Flux)

* * *

I’ve added the following to my `.julia/config/startup.jl` file so that I can call `_add("Plots")`, wait for the precompilation, and then have a quick `using Plots` in any environment. Unlike adding `Plots` to my global environment, `Plots` will not reprecompile when it or any of its dependencies is updated unless I explicitly invoke `_add("Plots")` or `_up("Plots")`. When I switch Julia versions, it will reprecompile, but only once per julia version per call to `_add` or `_up`. Unlike the PackageCompiler route, with this approach the reprecompilation time on julia updates is lower and requires no manual intervention whatsoever. Normal Pkg usage should be entirely unaffected by this patch.

> **The implementation is mostly untested and the UX is terrible:**
>
> ```julia
> # https://discourse.julialang.org/t/10-15-minute-ttfp-with-plots-jl-please-help/92636/23?u=lilith
> if isinteractive()
> import Pkg
> 
> function _add(pkg::AbstractString)
> project = dirname(Base.active_project())
> Pkg.activate(pkg, shared=true)
> Pkg.add(pkg)
> Pkg.activate(project)
> pkg ∈ KNOWN_PACKAGES && return
> push!(KNOWN_PACKAGES, Symbol(pkg))
> open(joinpath(@ __DIR__ , "known_packages"), "a") do io
> println(io, pkg)
> end
> end
> 
> function _up(pkg::AbstractString)
> project = dirname(Base.active_project())
> Pkg.activate(pkg, shared=true)
> Pkg.update()
> Pkg.activate(project)
> end
> 
> function _rm(pkg::AbstractString)
> filter!(≠(pkg), KNOWN_PACKAGES)
> open(joinpath(@ __DIR__ , "known_packages"), "w") do io
> for pkg in KNOWN_PACKAGES
> println(io, pkg)
> end
> end
> end
> 
> isfile(joinpath(@ __DIR__ , "known_packages")) || touch(joinpath(@ __DIR__ , "known_packages"))
> const KNOWN_PACKAGES = Symbol.(readlines(joinpath(@ __DIR__ , "known_packages")))
> 
> pushfirst!(Pkg.REPL.install_packages_hooks, symbols -> begin
> isdisjoint(symbols, KNOWN_PACKAGES) && return false
> if symbols ⊆ KNOWN_PACKAGES
> project = dirname(Base.active_project())
> for s in symbols # Install known packages
> Pkg.activate(string(s), shared=true)
> @eval using $s
> end
> Pkg.activate(project)
> @info "Successfully loaded $(join(symbols, ", ")). Please ignore the following error message:"
> true
> else
> @warn "$(intersection(symbols, KNOWN_PACKAGES)) are special packages that cannot be installed at the same time as ordinary packages $(setdiff(symbols, KNOWN_PACKAGES))."
> false
> end
> end)
> end
> 
> ```

The tradeoff is that I may, in theory, be exposed to known package version incompatibilities between the plotting stack and whatever else I may be working with. OTOH I think I get the same risk with PackageCompiler and updating the sysimg is harder than a call to `_up("Plots")`

> [@kristoffer.carlsson](#):
>
> PackageCompiler on 1.9 is likely slow now due to some reasons (which will be fixed).

Lovely! That was the problem. In 1.8 I got a sysimg made in 385 seconds which is in line with the ratio I’ve been seeing in this thread w.r.t. my timings vs other folks’. I’m still going to try the idea in this post first for the aforementioned reasons, though)

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