simple performance question on CVS

[Ethan Chan]

Hi,
    I understand that CVS uses diff to store the differences from one
version to another (to save space).  My question is what happens if, say I
have 500 versions since a file was first added to the repository.  To
retrieve my latest version, CVS has to patch 500 times (appending all the
changes from the beginning) until the most recent version?  If so, that's a
big hit on performance, not to mention time wasted for the convenience of
space saved?

Thanks in advance for your input!

-Ethan