Faster directory listing possible?

[JimDrew]

Have you tried installing any type of device caching software?  Single block reads (which are common when parsing the directory) is extremely slow with flash card type devices.

[JimDrew]

I meant a real caching program, not just adding buffers to the FFS.  There were several different real caching programs that we used back in the day, and these greatly improved the speed of hard files and single block read devices (like floppies), so this would really help the case you talking about here.  I don't recall the names of the caching programs... I will have to boot my A3000 development machine and see what I used last.

[JimDrew]

OK, I booted up my A3000 (and WinUAE) and see that I use "FastCache".  You can set the lines and such from the tooltype info.  I tried this with my A1200 and it makes a huge difference (with the real HD as well as the 8GB CF drive).

[JimDrew]

Now install PFS3 v5.3:

http://aminet.net/disk/misc/PFS3_53.lha

up the buffers to about 300 and install PeterK's latest icon.library from here:

http://eab.abime.net/coders-system/64079-icon-library-46-4-test-versions.html

And then report back whether "FastCache" is faster .

Ok, what are we using to bench mark this with?  I think FastCache is faster - I am using an A3000 w/40MHz 040 w/80MB of RAM and an A1200 with 50MHz 030 w/256MB of RAM.  The A1200 has the stock hard drive and a 8GB CF drive.

[JimDrew]

I use addbuffers 200 with FastCache.  Anything higher was just wasting memory.     I remember PowerCache, but I didn't use it for some reason... I don't think it worked as well with hardfiles as FastCache.

FastCache is a night and day difference with the 8GB CF drive.

[JimDrew]

Are you able to use more than one CF drive (I use MicroDrives, essentially the same, but it's really a hard drive in stead of flash memory)? I can only use one at a time, I really need both of them to work together.

I have not tried using more than one CF drive.  I only have one currently.