Receiving output from a process, as is done for example by shell mode and (I guess, but have not verified) compilation mode, is slow in Emacs because all output is run through comint-carriage-motion and ansi-color-filter-region (which does nothing but throw color information away IIRC) which are written in Elisp.
If you don't run the output through those 2 functions, then non-printing characters remain in the output that severely undermine legibility.
C programmers tend to develop the ability to glean information from the voluminous output of build processes as it goes whizzing by on a terminal, so they find compilation mode frustratingly slow. Or at least that is my guess as to what happens.
If you don't run the output through those 2 functions, then non-printing characters remain in the output that severely undermine legibility.
C programmers tend to develop the ability to glean information from the voluminous output of build processes as it goes whizzing by on a terminal, so they find compilation mode frustratingly slow. Or at least that is my guess as to what happens.