Hello, and a good holiday time to all!
Is someone out there who could give me some advice? I presented myself with DTP for Xmas, and am really happy playing and exploring.
But I ran into some problem: For testing I tried to import a large collection of files, but noted that after a while the mac did not release the screensaver – backlight went on but screensaver stayed – requiring a force quit.
The imported folders were archived journal articles, consisting of a HTML article and a number of JPG thumbnails and full-sizers each. I explored with a script (took me a while to learn and write, had some fun) that cut the import into slices (of one journal issue, hence the varying slice sizes) and captured the times required to import each. This is what is said:
Database Import Files
Content* Time** HTML JPG Other Total
0 108 241 576 124 941
941 168 236 752 132 1120
2061 159 277 566 150 993
3054 223 278 738 148 1164
4218 216 270 632 154 1056
5274 318 314 862 192 1368
6642 362 305 828 168 1301
7943 328 296 688 140 1124
9067 => 345 246 702 136 1084
10151 => 842 274 736 146 1156
11307 1275 263 596 148 1007
12314 1702 266 854 140 1260
13574 1459 270 638 156 1064
14638 2018 286 952 162 1400
16038 1709 282 660 154 1096
* = number of previously imported files
** for the slice of files in that line; in seconds
(I have a nice diagram, but how to get it into this post?)
(If you want to compare mileages: AlBook G4, X.4.10, 1GB, 1.5 Ghz, DTP database and import files on internal harddisk)
I was surprised to see that the JPG had the largest impact on importing time, as the parallels in the later third of the imports show (in a diagram lines of JPGs, Total, and Time are almost congruently parallel). Just for curiosity: why is that so? There should be no words to be indexed.
But what really worries me is the sudden jump in required time after a certain number of files (between 9000 and 10000) have been imported. What is the cause of this behaviour?
And really important: how can I avoid it? More RAM? (BTW: what would be the max for an AlBook G4?)
All the best for the New Year, (including many updates and new versions.)
Br@