In Electron apps, the cost of large modules is very real.
fs-extra is very convenient, but removing it caused 50 fewer unique
files to be required(), resultin in 60ms faster startup!
Before: 557 unique requires (1330-1340ms)
After: 507 unique requires (1270-1280ms)
Every require() that we do before the users sees UI reduces startup
time.
I used the following code (added to index.js) to log every require()
call in the main process:
```js
var Module = require('module')
var required = {}
Module.prototype.require = function (orig) {
return function (id) {
if (!required[id]) {
required[id] = true
console.log(`${id} (from ${this.filename})`)
}
return orig.apply(this, arguments)
}
}(Module.prototype.require)
```
From this I was able to learn that lots of modules were being required
that aren't actually used until later.
I also sent this related PR to eliminate another few require()s:
https://github.com/LinusU/node-application-config/pull/4
This increases startup time by 50ms.
We'll probably realize much bigger gains by following this same
procedure for the renderer process.
There was a terrible bug introduced in 0809e20a6e -- clicking play on any of the default torrents in a fresh install of the app would fail and result in a 'path missing' error.
This fixes the bug, and also adds a migration step to clean up resulting broken config files
Before, the app made itself the default torrent file handler automatically, pissing off some of our users. Now, it's not by default, and you can change it in the prefs.
