Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Well, you say all that, but if I do the same operation using the CLI 
> instead, it's instantaneous.

I don't know about NT-era OSes, but I remember that for a long time, the 
CLI used the DOS 1.0 interface for deleting files, because it let you 
specify wildcards. Hence, you had one kernel call that would delete all 
the files.

If you use a UNIX-like interface, you have to do "find file, delete 
file, find file, delete file, find file, delete file, ...." So on a 
directory with a half-million files, you scan the thing a quarter 
million times on average (on ext3, at least) or you at least wind up 
doing a whole bunch of kernel calls if you have a file system that's a 
little better organized about the file layout. To be fair, NTFS and 
other tree-based directory systems have to rework the tree when you 
delete the files, so this too will be disk I/O overhead.

> Clearly this is just another instance of 
> Windows Explorer being retarded. 

Nah. It's because there's a different API for DOS 2.0 and later than for 
DOS 1.0 and earlier.

> Dude... where do you even buy that much disk space??

Fry's. Best Buy. Circuit City. Any place that sells hard drives. Go down 
to the store, shell out $500, and pick up a couple terabytes.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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