ColorAtlas wrote:
[color=0066CC]I absolutely agree with you with reference to registries, swap files, shutdown procedure and lack of integrated ramdisk. Absolutely begging for trouble and very cumbersome![/color]
Hrm. I wonder how people treat ENV: and ENVARC: nowadays. They bear an uncanny resemblance to /etc on Linux, which is a sort-of human-readable version of the Registry. If a lot less bloated and less likely to gather dust and crud.
I consider 'swap files', 'shutdown procedures' and 'lack of integrated ramdisk' to be Good Things and strongly advocate AmigaOS 4+ supports their presence. (Or in case of the RAM-disk, absence.) Most people think of Windows when it comes to the words 'swap file' and fear that this mediocre implementation is how it's supposed to be done. Or that the system will always prefer disk- over silicon-based memory. On a proper OS (like any Unix, and I hope AOS 4), a swap file is a useful and standardised tool for temporarily having more memory at your disposal. Swap files are slow, should only be used as a temporary last resort, but are cheap and can help a mite in a fix. The problem with Windows is that it thinks it
is an emergency all the time. (Which, given the fact that it was programmed by Microsoft, is not a bad assumption.)
Proper shutdown procedures are necessary to make sure all buffers and caches are flushed out to disk before the power is cycled. You also want to make sure that perhaps some automatic save-all or issue-a-warning-to-users script is invoked when someone inadvertedly cycles the power of presses the three-finger-salute. Or even make sure that not all people can reset your beloved machine. I'm sure some of you have had inquisitive family members poking around the machine...
The RAM-disk is an archaic piece of software which is no longer necessary with modern file caching and high bus transfer speeds. With the A1000 and A500, the RAM-disk was a useful way of speeding up file accesses, as the only alternative was the maddeningly slow disk drive. Modern OSes (and thus, I hope, OS4) cache all file system accesses, reading in and writing out changes in big and thus efficient chunks. (Hence the need for a proper shutdown procedure.) There is absolutely zero need for a classic Amiga-style manual RAM-disk. A good cache contains all of its functionality and more, and works automatically too.
The moral of this story is that one should stop the a priori imposing of old design decisions on a new machine.
