Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

Fetching an identical revision using the API takes longer when using oldid, since it appears not to use the cache.

Example:
This page loads relatively quickly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=The%20Beatles

...and produces the following XML output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <parse displaytitle="The Beatles" revid="xxx">
(...etc)

However, taking the same revid, and fetching it using the oldid parameter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&oldid=xxx

...takes much longer.  (note: replace "xxx" with the latest revision id)

(Priyanka is currently planning to fix this)