dweisman@umiami.ir.miami.edu (Ordinary Man) (03/27/91)
When I first installed System 7b4 on my classic, I got a dialog saying that it was "rebuilding the desktop file" with a status bar showing progress. I thought that system 7 eliminated the need for a desktop file due to the new desktop manager. Could someone explain the distinction between the new and old versions of the desktop? And, I guess as a side note, how does the desktop folder fit into all of this? Thanks alot, Dan Weisman -- /-------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Dan Weisman - University of Miami - Florida | || || || || | |--------------------------------------------------| || || ||\ /|| | | INTERNET -----> dweisman@umiami.IR.Miami.edu | || || || | || | | BITNET -----> dweisman@umiami | ||||||| || | || | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | "The more I get to see, the less I understand..." - Triumph | \_________________________________________________________________________/
nerm@Apple.COM (Dean Yu) (03/27/91)
In article <1991Mar26.210153.8372@umiami.ir.miami.edu> dweisman@umiami.ir.miami.edu (Ordinary Man) writes: > > When I first installed System 7b4 on my classic, I got a dialog >saying that it was "rebuilding the desktop file" with a status bar showing >progress. I thought that system 7 eliminated the need for a desktop file >due to the new desktop manager. Could someone explain the distinction >between the new and old versions of the desktop? And, I guess as a side >note, how does the desktop folder fit into all of this? > If I'm not getting my Finder dialogs confused, I think that particular dialog now says "Updating disk for new system software" or something like that. But that dialog does still exist when you actuall do rebuild the desktop. Yes, with the Desktop Manager, there are two desktop database files on large volumes. But the end user really isn't going to care that much about whether there is one, or two, or a grazillion files that maintains the desktop info. (Well, maybe he care a little if there are a grazillion files...) As for the differences, the old desktop file kept all its information in resources. It included among other things, BNDL and FREF resources for your applications and documents. Searching through that to figure out which document went with which application was linear, which is why it slows down for very large volumes. In the new desktop files, the information is stored in B-trees which allows for much faster searches for the relevant information. The Desktop Folder is normally invisible. Anytime you drag something onto the desktop under System 7, that items actually gets placed in the Desktop Folder. If you switch back to 6.0.x, those you'd find those desktop items inside the now visible Desktop Folder. -- Dean Yu Blue Meanie, Negative Ethnic Role Model, etc. Apple Computer, Inc. My opinions and so on and so forth...