Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!unido!fauern!faui44!msurlich
From: msurlich@faui44.UUCP (Matthias Urlichs )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Faster desktop rebuilding info from MACworld
Message-ID: <242@faui10.UUCP>
Date: 5 Apr 88 09:42:14 GMT
References: <13791@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1489@ut-emx.UUCP>
Reply-To: msurlich@faui10.UUCP (Matthias Urlichs)
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen, W - Germany
Lines: 39

In article <13791@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> mfi@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Mark Interrante) writes:
>It is claimed to be MUCH faster ( using B-trees )
>
>Will this be available in the next release of the system software?
>I am tired of my 40mg. disk taking so long to rebuild the desktop.
 
The Desktop manager greatly speeds up desktop rebuilds and updates.
With my 80-MB Jasmine, it previously took two minutes to add an application
to the HD, and about 10 to do a rebuild. Now it's down to two and 20 seconds.

Also, if you have more than 1000+ icons total, the old Desktop file will get
full. You will then experience the most astonishing crashes available on
any Macintosh. (This problem is due to the fact that the Desktop file
is a resource file; there's a technote explaining about this limit.)
So if you want to keep a PD library on your big HD, and you don't have
the Desktop Manager, don't copy all those programs with the Finder!

The only problem is that under System 4.2, anything that isn't a floppy
can't be dragged to the trash. I.e. Megafloppies, mounted tapes, etc.
This should be easily fixable (by Apple).

The Desktop Manager seems to work by patching a lot of resource calls
checking if they try to get at any file named "Desktop" on anything
that's not a floppy, and re-route them to its own files, called "Desktop DB"
and "Desktop DF" (I think).

I really like the Desktop Manager and I hope Apple puts it into the
next System, so that we can forget about the slow Desktop.

(I posted this information a while ago but no one seemed interested.)

BTW, does anyone know how the Desktop Manager finds out about this "non-Floppy"
stuff?

-- 
Matthias Urlichs              CompuServe: 72437,1357  Delphi: URLICHS
Rainwiesenweg 9
8501 Schwaig 2                "Violence is the last refuge
West Germany                            of the incompetent." -- Salvor Hardin