[tex-live] TeXLive 2005 is slower than TeXLive2003

[Karl Berry]

    And the directory of TeXLive 2003 is much bigger than that of TeXLive 2005.

That doesn't actually mean much, given ls-R files.  The question (well,
one question) is whether the configuration files are telling the
binaries to search the disk in the 05 case and not the 03 case.  You
might diff the texmf.cnf files and see if anything looks suspicious,
like a missing !!.  You might also run kpsewhich --debug story.tex (say)
and compare the output to see if there are major differences in what
gets searched.

If you are a glutton for punishment, you might try getting Akira's
current W32TeX binaries and see if they are better or worse.
http://www.fsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jp/kakuto/win32-ptex/web2c75-e.html

Anyway, all we can really do is randomly throw out wild guesses.  If you
want to actually find where the differences are, you'll need to run it
under some kind of profiling tool that can tell you which functions are
taking all the extra time.  (And I have no knowledge of profilers on
Windows.)

Best,
Karl