Two independent constants: memoise the pygments token -> Rich style lookup (a decompilation uses ~18 distinct token types but each token walked up to nine 'token in ttype' hierarchy checks), and hold the worker-connect poll at 5ms for the first 5s instead of backing off geometrically from the first probe.

Result: {"status":"keep","total_ms":18856.8,"lg_boot_ms":689.7,"lg_decomp_ms":2484.2,"lg_graph_ms":1120,"lg_hex_ms":700.1,"lg_index_ms":96.5,"lg_listing_cold_ms":425.6,"lg_listing_warm_ms":511.5,"lg_nav_ms":6590.7,"lg_palette_ms":4.8,"lg_render_ms":215.1,"lg_search_ms":2195.5,"pure_graph_ms":238.1,"sm_boot_ms":431.5,"sm_decomp_ms":667.2,"sm_graph_ms":686.9,"sm_hex_ms":569.8,"sm_index_ms":0,"sm_listing_cold_ms":258.1,"sm_listing_warm_ms":283.2,"sm_nav_ms":365.2,"sm_palette_ms":0.3,"sm_render_ms":243.7,"sm_search_ms":79,"fails":0}

2 files changed, 32 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/idatui/highlight.py b/idatui/highlight.py
index 5f504bf..a19f86a 100644
--- a/idatui/highlight.py
+++ b/idatui/highlight.py
@@ -41,11 +41,24 @@ _DEFAULT = Style(color="#c3cad3")                           # 11.0:1 body
 _lexer = CLexer(stripnl=False, ensurenl=False)
 
 
+#: Resolved styles by token type. Pygments token types are interned singletons
+#: and a whole decompilation only ever uses about eighteen of them, but
+#: ``token in ttype`` is a hierarchy walk and _STYLES is scanned in order -- so
+#: without this every token in the body pays up to nine of those walks. It was a
+#: quarter of the time spent highlighting a function.
+_STYLE_CACHE: dict[object, Style] = {}
+
+
 def _style_for(token) -> Style:
-    for ttype, style in _STYLES:
-        if token in ttype:
-            return style
-    return _DEFAULT
+    style = _STYLE_CACHE.get(token)
+    if style is None:
+        style = _DEFAULT
+        for ttype, candidate in _STYLES:
+            if token in ttype:
+                style = candidate
+                break
+        _STYLE_CACHE[token] = style
+    return style
 
 
 def highlight_c(code: str) -> list[list[Segment]]:
@@ -55,6 +68,9 @@ def highlight_c(code: str) -> list[list[Segment]]:
         if not value:
             continue
         style = _style_for(token)
+        if "\n" not in value:      # the common case: a token inside one line
+            lines[-1].append(Segment(value, style))
+            continue
         parts = value.split("\n")
         for i, part in enumerate(parts):
             if i > 0:
diff --git a/idatui/worker_client.py b/idatui/worker_client.py
index 59c62a1..4f90700 100644
--- a/idatui/worker_client.py
+++ b/idatui/worker_client.py
@@ -116,7 +116,17 @@ class WorkerClient:
             # fifth of a second even when the worker was ready in milliseconds
             # (a small binary, or a seeded .i64), which is most of the time in
             # the tests and noticeable on a re-open.
+            #
+            # Backing off geometrically from the first probe was still too eager:
+            # a seeded database is ready at ~250ms, by which point the delay has
+            # grown to 134ms, so every open waited ~350ms whatever the binary --
+            # the same number for a 47KB `echo` and a 1.2MB `bash`, which is what
+            # gives a polling artefact away. Hold the fast rate for the first few
+            # seconds (a connect attempt on an absent socket is microseconds) and
+            # only slow down for a genuine cold auto-analysis, which runs for
+            # minutes and does not care about 200ms.
             delay = 0.005
+            fast_until = t0 + 5.0
             while time.time() < deadline:
                 try:
                     s = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
@@ -132,7 +142,8 @@ class WorkerClient:
                         progress(f"auto-analyzing {os.path.basename(self._bin)}… "
                                  f"({int(time.time() - t0)}s)")
                     time.sleep(delay)
-                    delay = min(delay * 1.6, 0.2)
+                    if time.time() > fast_until:
+                        delay = min(delay * 1.6, 0.2)
             raise IDAConnectionError("worker did not become ready in time")
 
     @property