Perf is not important for a dev resource. If a dev had spent a ton of time optimising that they'd have wasted their time. Why does wasting their time make them more credible?
* HTML compressed (gzipped tar file) - with one web page per node.
* Info document (gzipped tar file).
* ASCII text compressed (gzipped).
* TeX dvi file (gzipped).
* PDF file.
* Texinfo source (gzipped tar file).
If the one big file (great for grepping) was too confusing, you probably want to opt for HTML, with one file per node. For example, the Sockets/Local Namespace page for glibc: [0]
In many places, perf is still important, and one of the reasons, I believe, that GNU offers its manuals in various formats: [0]
I know of a few devs that work for web, but due to their nations economics, work:
* On a smartphone
* Via a satellite connection
Despite being in a first world country, I've had to do both at various times whilst working from remote areas.
The GNU manuals have a huge wealth of information, but they load fast by following simple-first policies.
caniuse.com is a SPA, but they load damn fast.
I'm not saying that this page is insanely slow, but that it is slow at all is still a surprise.
And not every dev in the world gets to have broadband.
[0] http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/