Code / The Appnel Group 

Movable Type 4.2: The Performance Optimization Release

For those of you who are not paying very very close attention to the MTOS repository and developers list, the details of MT 4.2 have been released and development has begun in earnest.

In summary MT 4.2 will focus on performance optimization and enhancements. MT 4.0 and MT 4.1 added a lot of great functionality and user experience improvements at a break neck speed. In all the wake of all that activity is a lot of unoptimized code. So this release is not is slated to begin addressing those issues and nothing more. (Somehow I think that will change and engineering will slip a few by product management. Just a hunch though.)

Already a new version of MTOS 4.1.1 has been release with a performance logging and monitoring framework in place. This work was closely followed by modularizing the gargantuan MT::App::CMS, a library/module that contained all the functionality of the MT CMS application weighing in at and approaching 1MB in size, in to many smaller modules. (A running log of performance enhancements are here.) Byrne Reese reports significant improvements in the memory usage and response times of early tests.

So far the previously mentioned memory leak problem does not seem to have been addressed which is a real bummer because it affects the largest most high volume installs that need these better performance the most. I could be wrong as I have not tested the latest rom the repository, but I have not seen anything in the commit logs that indicates changes have been made in this regard.

The page you linked to on MT.org only shows one... any word on other performance enhancements?

My understanding is that they are still testing and experimenting to what will improve performance so this list will be expanded. What it not clear yet.

Six Apart made it clear to me that nothing will be changed unless it is proven to meet this goal. They are not refactoring code just to make it neater or easier to read and so on.

Based on the FAQ that was posted yesterday it seems that getting people to install MT 4.1.1 and submit the performance logs that are generate to Six Apart is a key strategy in determining more.