[ros-dev] Symbolic Links

[Rick Langschultz]

It is a very good idea to implement symbolic links in the registry;  
however, i do find it very difficult to navigate a registry key with  
hundreds of subkeys. Instead I would rather the system choose how to  
index the data. Understandibly CPU load and RAM are key factors in  
implementing such a service but until system services are implemented  
i find it difficult to complete my part of the feature. Using the  
registry now is a great place to start. However without rewriting  
Explorer to interpret those links it will take some amount of time.

On Dec 1, 2005, at 7:08 AM, David Hinz wrote:

> Well, if you add these features or plan to add them in the near  
> future, the service with the MySQL or whatever db would be better  
> for this, I just said that I like my idea more than yours, because  
> it is easier to implement.
> It is true, that the registry would become larger by this, but how  
> many symbolic links do you want to use? 10000?
> I think there wouldn't be much more than 100 of those links (and if  
> there were many more, it would just show, how important this  
> feature was...), so how slow would a PC have to be that this  
> feature would slow it measurably down?
>
> To say it again, the idea with the db is good, but it is only  
> better than mine, if you really want to implement the features you  
> mentioned, because otherwise it would waste a lot of cpu-time and RAM.
>
> @Richard: Windows doesn't slow down because of the registry (the  
> german pc-magazine c't prooved that some months ago), I think it is  
> because of full and very fragmented harddisks...
>
> Greets,
>
> David Hinz
>
> Rick Langschultz schrieb:
>> I was thinking more of a self-optimizing database service that  
>> would allow indexing of files, submitting and retreiving metadata  
>> information, extended file permissions and DRM (evil) if needed.  
>> Also it could be built on something small like MySQL with an  
>> InnoDB backend or even sleepycats or perhaps MaxDB from Mysql  
>> because they provide the XML indexing engine which could prove  
>> very useful when modifying data through notepad. Also the service  
>> could be controlled like Spotlight in Mac OS X Tiger. This  
>> indexing service could index different file types also and  
>> symbolic links would hold higher privilege that indexed files.  
>> Using the registry is illogical because the system goes through  
>> each of those keys on startup and loading...
>> Also with a new explorer interface the XML engine could interact  
>> with explorer and the desktop in an attempt to create a better  
>> ReactOS interface.
>> On Nov 30, 2005, at 5:57 PM, Richard wrote:
>>> Use the registry?  For symbolic links?  Extra file info?  Are you  
>>> kidding me?  You DO know why Windows tends to slow down over time  
>>> right?  Over the months/years the registry gets more and more  
>>> cluttered with...junk.  What happens when you delete a file?   
>>> What happens if the file gets nuked via a disk error?  What  
>>> happens if a user doesn't WANT symbolic links taking up precious  
>>> memory (and  just because you can get a GB of RAM for $70, a  200  
>>> GB HD for under $100, doesn't mean you should try and use all  
>>> that space on operating system code.  See Vista for an example*)
>>>
>>> A service with an integrated db engine is the best way to go if  
>>> you want to do that, but please remember that NTFS already has  
>>> support for symbolic links.
>>>
>>> Not to say that your idea isn't a good one...it's just better off  
>>> as a system service, as suggested earlier.
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