help with desktop folder
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From: John Young on 17 Jul 2010 20:54 Ok I screwed something up...and hope someone will help. Things I put in my desktop folder don't show up on my desktop. Desktop folder is inside my home folder and has the correct icon just as it should. Thanks for any help! v10.6.4
From: David Empson on 17 Jul 2010 21:21 John Young <myoung(a)cavtel.net> wrote: > Ok I screwed something up...and hope someone will help. > Things I put in my desktop folder don't show up on my desktop. Desktop > folder is inside my home folder and has the correct icon just as it > should. > Thanks for any help! v10.6.4 How many icons are on your desktop? If it is completely full, then new icons will appear underneath existing ones. In general, it is not a good idea to have lots of icons on your desktop. Each icon on the desktop is implemented as a window and requires a fair amount of memory to maintain. Organising individual files on your desktop into folders is a good first step, as only the folder icon will be a window, not all the file icons. -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz
From: dorayme on 17 Jul 2010 22:18 In article <1jltucg.vf2pgpcjd9m9N%dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz>, dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote: > Each icon on the desktop is implemented as a window and requires a fair > amount of memory to maintain. What amount would you estimate to be some sort of average for each icon or group of ten say? -- dorayme
From: David Empson on 17 Jul 2010 22:47 dorayme <dorayme(a)optusnet.com.au> wrote: > In article <1jltucg.vf2pgpcjd9m9N%dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz>, > dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote: > > > Each icon on the desktop is implemented as a window and requires a fair > > amount of memory to maintain. > > What amount would you estimate to be some sort of average for > each icon or group of ten say? Not much for each icon, but it starts to add up if you have dozens or hundreds of icons on your desktop. At a minimum, each window requires a buffer to hold the content of the window, a backing store for what is behind it, plus a data structure to keep track of the window itself. Probably in the order of 20 KB for a 48x48 icon, but Apple is now using 512x512 icons which get scaled down, and I don't know exactly how that maps to what the window manager deals with. Assuming 20 KB for argument's sake, multiply that by 50 icons on the desktop and we're getting into the realm a megabyte or more. I'd expect a fair amount of that to be in graphics memory (if possible) to reduce delays when redrawing. I don't know what additional overhead there is for Quartz or other parts of the graphics subsystem. Processing overhead is also a factor - the window manager has to keep track of all the windows and deal with layering, redrawing, etc. That's on top of any data structures Finder uses to keep track of the icons and the files they represent, and any copies of the icon images that Finder may have loaded into memory. -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz
From: TaliesinSoft on 17 Jul 2010 23:50
On 2010-07-17 20:21:25 -0500, David Empson said: > How many icons are on your desktop? If it is completely full, then new > icons will appear underneath existing ones. > In general, it is not a good idea to have lots of icons on your desktop. > Each icon on the desktop is implemented as a window and requires a fair > amount of memory to maintain. > Organising individual files on your desktop into folders is a good first > step, as only the folder icon will be a window, not all the file icons. I guess I fall into the category of "minimalist" given that I normally have no icons or folders on my desktop and have, other than the icons for Folder and Trash, only icons for currently active applications and files in my dock. Amusingly I've run contests with friends who claim that my organization takes longer to access a file or application and I've been able to prove that I can access things just as fast as they can. -- James Leo Ryan - Austin, Texas |