The WordPress gettext implementation is very slow. It uses objects that cannot be cached into memory without reinstanting them.
pomodoro stores all seen translations as a PHP hashtable (array), that can be subsequently stored into a file as PHP code and levereged via OPcache when loaded.
Moreover, pomodoro does lazyloading for strings that are only encountered in output. It does not preload everything it can for a domain until there's no other choice.
We think so :)
Example on a vanilla ru_RU locale WordPress site:
Before:
After:
Drop pomodoro.php into wp-content/mu-plugins and enjoy the added speed :)
The more plugins you have the better the performance gains.
Let us know how it goes at [email protected] ;)
GPLv3