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From: ml27192@uxa.cs.uiuc.edu (Mark Lanett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Desktop Manager
Message-ID: <1990Oct31.220114.14952@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 90 22:01:14 GMT
References: <1990Oct30.163628.900@fog.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
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In article <1990Oct30.163628.900@fog.ann-arbor.mi.us> 
brian@fog.ann-arbor.mi.us (Brian S. Schang) writes:
> I have a 140M drive, and when I copy something in the Finder, it takes
> forever to update the Desktop file (I guess due to a large Desktop
> file).  Will the Desktop Manager fix this problem?
 
> If so, how does it do it (in layman's terms).  It still maintains
> compatibility with current setups?  Why would I not want to run it?

Yes, it will fix it. Not only does copying speed up, but launching (more 
important) is instantaneous. No searching for the file location... It uses 
a flat file database rather than the resource fork, which had to be 
accessed through the Resource Manager and was thus slow (in addition to 
suffering from RM limitations). It looks the same when running, although 
there are now two invisible files instead of one.

One limitation is that you can no longer hack it the way you could the 
Desktop file (for example to make it smaller but keep comments). Also it 
doesn't work with floppies (someone mentioned that it seemed to check for 
the DB file on them, but copying them over doesn't start it up). 

> Lastly, is addition something that will be in System 7.0?

Yes.

Mark Lanett, a.k.a. ml27192@uxa.cs.uiuc.edu
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Wow! A .sig! Only now I have to think of something original...