Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!marque!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Thomas_E_Zerucha
From: Thomas_E_Zerucha@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: To seek or not to seek.
Message-ID: <12297@cup.portal.com>
Date: 8 Dec 88 03:23:21 GMT
References: <806@yugas.UUCP> <7078@chinet.chi.il.us> <838@cacilj.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 13

I wouldn't call the Atari's filing system "slow" if you ever dealt with a
normal PC (4.77Mhz XT w/ standard Disk Controller), or with an Amiga (the
ones I have access to have v. 1.2 of the os, and 1.3 is supposed to be
faster).  It has problems with the FAT, so get fatspeed or turbodos if you
can't wait for TOS 1.4.  Not that the others are slow, just that the ST isn't
slower unless you have a disk which is both big and full, and if you have the
Spectre you will not want anything less than a Mac 2.
   But to the question - does a faster drive make a difference?  YES!!!.
Of course you won't notice it if you read files in small pieces, or if your
memory is very full, so you can't buffer floppy I/O.  But when reading contiguo
blocks or if there is a lot of seeking you will notice a difference.  Wether
it is worth it is another matter.  Generally more space will do more good
than a faster mechanism, and RLL will be faster than MFM.