Ouch!

  I  wrote xiate[1] because I wanted a VTE-based terminal which is fast.
  All VTE terminals I tried where slow to start up. Even a  very  simple
  GTK application using VTE was slow. So, I thought that VTE itself must
  be slow to start.

  It took me two years to use strace(1) to actually have a look  at  it.
  I'm an idiot. I should have done this right from the start!

  VTE  isn't  slow  at  all.  It's UIM[2].  When it's installed, all GTK
  applications  suffer  from  a  delay  on  startup  --  including   VTE
  terminals. When it's *not* installed, everything's fine.

  Damn.

  Now what? Kill xiate? Just remove its client-server model?

  ____________________

  1. https://github.com/vain/xiate

  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uim