Ben,
Thanks for your quick help today. I've also gotten a reply from Jean
Michel on my support ticket, which told me the most important thing I
wanted to know: the project is still very much alive.
I'm also a small developer, and I understand the can't-do-everything-at-
once balancing act. But I've also known other small developers who simply
quietly abandon a product with nary a word when they get a new job, or
move, or graduate, or something else in their life. I just wanted to make
sure that hadn't happened here. I'm now confident again that I'm using a
living product, which as I said was the most important thing to know.
Some more below:
On 4/12/05 at 3:49 PM, Ben Kennedy ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) said:
>On 12 4 2005 at 3:43 pm -0400, Steve Abrahamson wrote:
>
>>I'm having growing performance problems. I think it's partially due to
>>the insane level of fragmentation of my message database (since it's
>>always open, the OS can't help keep it defrag'd), but overall, it's never
>>really been as responsive as it ought to be. I keep a lot of mail, and PM
>>is supposed to be able to handle that.
>
>Have you done a File > Database > Compact Database recently? That
>operation causes the database to be rebuilt sequentially into a new temp
>file, which should alleviate fragmentation. I do that every few weeks
>and also reclaim a lot of disk space in the process.
I have, and it doesn't seem to help too much. Granted, I get free space
back, but that's not nearly as important as performance. I'm waiting
seconds between click and response, especially when PM is fetching mail
at the same time (just best to take your hands off the keyboard and sit
back during that), and... well, that just shouldn't be happening.
I have some concern about my database and fragmentation. My message
database is about 500 megs (when I compact it it goes down to 200-250
megs). But when I look at my disk fragmentation, my message database is
(before compacting), over 1,600 fragments. And I'm thinking, gee, maybe
PM's spending way too many cycles managing disk access.
The question is what to do about that. The database is open all the time.
OS X 10.3's journaled file system should be able to defragment files, and
it seems that it does a reasonably decent job of that, but it only gets
to do that when the file is opening (I think). If the database is always
open, it's just going to keep writing and writing and writing, and it's
going to get hideously fragmented.
Wondering aloud, might there be some way for PM to encourage the OS to
keep it's database less fragmented? Some routine that poked the OS to
"maintain file <xyz>" during 3am OS housekeeping tasks?
Alternately, why am I experiencing a problem where others are not, what's
the difference, and what behavioral changes can I make here to match
those who are not having a problem?
>>1) Is there a new version in the works that will address performance?
>>
>>2) Is there a new version in the works that will be tuned for Tiger?
>>
>>3) Since I've sent in emails to ctm and not gotten any response in months
>>(where it used to only take a few weeks) and their web site hasn't been
>>updated since 04 - is this still a supported product? Does it have a
>>future growth path?
>
>CTM haven't done a lot of site updates or publicity, but then, neither
>have I with my own products lately. I appreciate what slack appearance
>that gives to customers, but I can also see it from the small-dev-shop
>side of the fence (attention is focused on developing the product).
>Given that CTM have been improving PM over the past several years
>(slowly, yes, but consistently), I would not fret.
Again, the history has been good, and my concerns over the present and
future are relieved. And thanks.
>Version 5.2 is also in testing right now, which adds some Tiger features.
> (Since you're new to the list you may have missed the announcement; I'll
>forward.)
Got it. Very cool, and yet again, thanks.
I've just signed up for both lists, so hopefully I won't be so woefully
out of the loop again.
Thanks all,
Steve
Steve Abrahamson
Ascending Technologies
FileMaker 7 Certified Developer
http://www.asctech.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
