LaTeX loading freezes system for ~1 min

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a technical issue where users experience system freezes when loading pages with LaTeX content on the Physics Forums. Participants explore potential causes, including browser compatibility and the LaTeX rendering process, while sharing their experiences across different operating systems and browsers.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One user reports that their computer freezes for over a minute when loading LaTeX content after booting up, while it works fine on Ubuntu with Firefox.
  • Another participant runs Chrome on Windows 7 without issues and questions if error messages are displayed during the freeze.
  • Some participants suggest that the issue may not be related to LaTeX itself but could be due to poorly written scripts in ads on the site.
  • Several users note that the freeze occurs only once after starting the computer, and subsequent loads do not cause the same issue.
  • One user recalls a similar issue being reported in the past, indicating a potential history of this problem.
  • A participant mentions that the freeze could be related to loading web fonts, which may cause the system to lock up temporarily.
  • Another user shares that they have sent the thread to developers and mentions a new MathJax version that addresses various bugs.
  • Some users express uncertainty about the cause of the freezes and suggest that it may be a rare glitch that is difficult to reproduce.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of experiences and hypotheses regarding the cause of the freezes, with no consensus on a definitive explanation. Some believe it is related to LaTeX loading, while others suspect external factors like ads or web fonts.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention varying experiences based on different configurations, indicating that the issue may not be universally reproducible. There are references to past reports of similar problems, but no clear resolution has been established.

  • #31
As expected, my work computer has more fonts - 312.
 
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  • #32
I have about 266 items in my fonts folder, after installing the STIX fonts. Some of the files are transparent - not sure what that means. It looks like a bunch of fonts were installed by mathematica and by enabling east-asian language support/input.

Again, installing the STIX fonts seems to have resolved the issue for me, as it did for Borg. I would guess along the lines of Borg's hypothesis that when mathjax can't find the font it's looking for it starts trying to look through all the others, and the number (and type?) of fonts it has to look through might account for part of the typical length of the time during which the system is frozen.

Does this resolve the issue for anyone else? Particularly the people who said they were seeing warnings/error messages just before the freeze?
 
  • #33
Mute said:
Does this resolve the issue for anyone else? Particularly the people who said they were seeing warnings/error messages just before the freeze?
Lisab told me that the font fixed her freeze issue as well.

@Greg: Is there a Latex FAQ somewhere? This might be a good addition for it.
 

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