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[Paul J Collins]

>>>>> "Alex" == Alex Feinberg <alex at galaxy.strlen.net> writes:

    >> "EFM isn't designed to run on a 486. In order toget the alpha
    >> blending and anti-aliasing and overlays for backgrounds and all
    >> that stuff people have been asking for some sacrifices have
    >> been made, and thus it actually requires a lot of computing
    >> power to run the display of your files."

    Alex> Yes, why do they use such CPU intensive code? Amiga
    Alex> Workbench, under which EFM is modeled (as told by some of
    Alex> the developers) ran on 50 Mhz, if not slower, machines.

Beacause all the hardcore alpha-blended anti-aliased action is hard on
the CPU, alas.  As I said, form over function.

    >> "Notice EFM has no text configuration files. All information is held in
    >> database files. The e_db_ed program is a small utility designed to add,
    >> delete and change entries in the database files."

    Alex> Dumbest idea I've ever seen. Why use a structure like a
    Alex> database, which provides much un-needed overlay, when in
    Alex> fact such a thing could be acomplished in a text file --
    Alex> that would require less code, less libraries to link with
    Alex> (gdbm I believe is what EFM asks for) and it would be human
    Alex> readable.

WindowMaker keeps its metadata in NeXTstep-style proplists, which
provide a nice combination of flexibility and structure; far more than
a key-value database system.  There's always XML, of course.

    Alex> Of course, databases are needed for many other things, but
    Alex> not if there's a much simpler way to implement what's
    Alex> needed.

Well, databases are okay, but using *binary* ones for no good reason
is trouble.  E.g., the Windows Registry.

Paul.

-- 
Paul Collins <sneakums at eircom.net> - - - - - [ A&P,a&f ]
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"We're busted in the blinding lights of closing time."