Re: PROPOSAL: GNOME Volume Manager for GNOME 2.8

[Alan Cox <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk>]

On Gwe, 2004-06-25 at 02:18, Jamie McCracken wrote:
> That all sounds okay but I frequently like to change individual icons in
> a theme so would I (and ordinary users) be able to easily do the same if
> they come pre-packed?

Well you could just keep it unpacked for such cases

> Also I could have all the icons in a single archive file (could be
> compressed or uncompressed depending which is fastest) and be able to
> easily change or replace individual icons via cli or File Roller. So
> does your pac format provide any additional benefits over using an
> archive file?

It allows the data to all be mapped shared and read-only including
the index. It allows the entire object set to be loaded with one system
call and no disk seeks.

Standard archive formats generally dont:
- Have a fast index
- Keep the data uncompressed and aligned on suitable boundaries
  for risc processors and direct mmapping
- allow for one copy of the data to be shared between disk cache and
  all users

It's not trying to be an archive format. It pads stuff out, it doesn't
compress. It's trying to be a very fast way to load icon/theme sets that
also saves a lot of memory. Its akin to compiling stuff - you don't
recompile gnome each boot (some gentoo users excepted) so why do you
load all your themes in pieces at high memory and disk cost ?