Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!blob
From: blob@Apple.COM (Brian Bechtel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: slow finder problems & desktop manager
Keywords: desktop manager, finder, slow
Message-ID: <19638@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 28 Oct 88 14:19:01 GMT
References: <545@comdesign.CDI.COM> <6700@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 32

In article <6700@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> mha@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes:
>Okay, I give up.  What exactly does the Desktop Manager init do (I
>know it comes with AppleShare) and why does it affect things elsewhen?
>In other words, why does it speed things up outside of AppleShare?  

The Desktop Manager INIT patches the system to use a new set of routines
to manage information the Finder needs to deal with icons, application
launching, and so forth.  The original code calls the Resource Manager,
and uses an invisible file at the root called "Desktop".  The Desktop
Manager code uses some B-tree routines and keeps two invisible files at
the root.  As documented in Tech Notes 141 & 210, the Resource Manager
can't handle more than 2,727 resources, and applications can require
many resources to accomodate all the information necessary to keep track
of icons and launching.

>A more telling question might be, if it's so useful and makes things
>run faster, why isn't it a part of the general system software release?
>Does it cause new and creative problems?  Should I use it anyway?

The Desktop Manager was written for a specific purpose, and is not and
was not ever meant to be used generally.  For example, the Desktop
Manager isn't robust when used outside of Appleshare; if you unmount a
drive "behind it's back", you lose all comments for the disk.  If you
have removable media such as a CDROM or removable winchester, you can't
ever unmount the disk.  You can eject the disk, but it won't unmount.
These, plus several other problems, make the Desktop Manager unsuitable
for general use.

We are planning to fix the problems associated with the Desktop in a
future release of the System.  

--Brian Bechtel		blob@apple.com		"My opinions, not Apple's"