Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!tank!nucsrl!accuvax.nwu.edu!bob From: bob@accuvax.nwu.edu (Bob Hablutzel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Re: Desktop Manager, what it is/isn't & suggestions Message-ID: <10330100@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 8 Dec 88 14:41:04 GMT References: <1422@umbc3.UMD.EDU> Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA Lines: 20 >> It speeds up access to desktop information because it replaces the >>normal desktop file which uses the Resource Manager and replaces it with >>"B-Trees". >I can't remember the last time I have questioned a posting from someone >at Apple, but the two slips on HFS and floppies makes me reconsider this >person's credibility. Have you ever run Disk First Aid, typed COMMAND-S >and then checked out an HFS volume (floppy or HD)? It does several checks >of "B-Trees," which leads me to believe that the Mac OS is already using >B-Trees, so the question still stands - how does DM do it's stuff? The MacOS _does_ already use B-Trees, but not for the desktop. Rather, the extends file (which maps out where on a HFS disk a file resides) and the catalog file (which contains information about the file) are B-Trees. The Desktop file, however, is still a normal resource file, which means the resource manager bottlenecks apply. I guess what the DeskTop Manager INIT does is replace the Desktop resource file with a Desktop B-Tree file, which would be quite a bit faster, I think. Bob Hablutzel BOB@NUACC.ACNS.NWU.EDU