t-jacobs@wasatch.utah.edu (Tony Jacobs) (09/01/89)
With the upcomming System 7 & rewrite of the Finder I want to put in a request. Create a means by which you can keep track of off line disks so they can be included in searches etc. What I'm really talking about is a way to have an integrated cataloging of disks. It would be integrated by allowing you to move files to these offline disks without having to insert the disk now (it would be done later when the disk is inserted next or upon the selection of a command to perform off line disk cleanup). You could launch applications or find and open files from offline disks. When you actually needed the disk it would prompt you to insert it. With the aliasing capability I was thinking it might not be that hard to have what I call "virtual disks". By this I mean you would have disk icons that represent floppys or cds or removable cartridge drives that could be searched or browsed just like regular folders are only they represent directories of disks that are OFF LINE. They could be move around just like folders and files and perhaps you could even double click on applications in them, and you would be prompted to insert the disk. With the TONS of floppies I have it would be a breeze to search for files and it wouldn't matter where they were. Now there are definitely some features these virtual disks would need: *Selectiveness. You probally don't want to keep a directory of every floppy you ever put into your machine so you would need a mechanism for selecting which ones you remember. It could be that you hold down the option key when dragging it to the trash or clicking on the eject button. I would like the option to do every disk put in and a mechanism for "forgetting" the disk upon ejection. *Updativeness. For disks you have put in before you would want it to automatically update the virtual disk directory (VDD). If it has changed since the last time you put it in you may want to be prompted to update or create a new VDD for it. *A home. When a disk is selected to have a VDD they should perhaps be placed in some default folder. If you want to move them around later that should be an option too. *Delayed actions. You could delete files within these disks and the action would be performed next time the disk is inserted. You could move files around from disk to disk (whether off line or not) and then with a cleanup action it would proceed to move the files around as necessary. The size of each disk would need to be kept in mind here so when files are moved you are prompted that not enough space exists. *Searchability. With the new Finders integrated search capability it would really be super if it could also search offline disk directories. Because of the way the new Finder will search I really believe this virtual disk idea needs to be built into the Finder. Sure some third party could develope something like this but you could never have the level of integration needed to have it be as useful as I have mentioned above. Apple PLEASE CONSIDER THIS. Aliasing really sould take care of half the problems of implimenting this. I can't imagine how the other half would be very much to do. I have over 300 floppy disks and I just got a 40 meg removable hard disk and a cd rom reader! You sould try searching and finding that file that you just knew you have somewhere!!! If anyone at Apple is interested, I have been thinking about this Idea for over a year now. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to talk. -- Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * UofU * t-jacobs@wasatch.utah.edu
d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) (09/01/89)
Re: Virtual disks (Really, delayed-action disks)
I have two things to say about the post about "Virtual disks":
1) That's not virtual disks, that's just an extension of what the finder
does to off-volume volumes/windows. Multiple partitions on a single
hard disk is closer to what I'd call a "virtual disk".
2) It's TOO insecure. If the machine happened to go down AFTER you
dragged around a file (or deleted it) but BEFORE these actions
were updated, you'd end up having a corrupted file system and
possible loss of data. This is especially true of a machine without
protected memory... (Hear me, Apple ? :-)
Consider the following scenario:
The user puts in a disk, and the Mac remembers the disks directory structure.
The user ejects this disk and inserts another disk.
The user drags an icon from the last disk to the first.
The mac caches up this copy, but delays it.
The user drags the original file down the drain.
The mac caches up this action. Since the volume is on-line now, the mac
promptly erases the file, after caching in the file data to be copied.
The power fails...
Or, if you tried to implement it a little safer, you could still end up
with corrupted file systems, file chains, directory entries etc.
I'm not saying that this doesn't happen now (It sadly does) but that there'd
be no use in increasing the chances for this to happen.
Since I feel that many more people will answer this in a similar vein, I
consider this 'nuff said.
--
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