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Re: Mounting NTFS partitions....



On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, Shachar Tal wrote:

> AFAIK, FAT is based on linked-lists (which are terribly slow - o(n) ),

Yes, except the list is not kept in the same place as the data, it's kept
in the *FAT* which is *small* (12,16,24 or 32 bits per sector or cluster)
and lives in memory with most good implementations (i.e. not MS-DOS). So
it's main fault is not o(n).

> while NTFS is a splay tree, with an amortized complexity of o(log n) per
> filesystem access.

and so is e2fs, except it has only 2 levels. The difference lies in how
the implementation is done, and on how many pointy headed bosses spoiled
the initial clean design model before it was released. This is always the
case for something made by a large company not known for good internal
organization, including governments and standard-elaborating commitees. 

Don't jump to conclusions too fast.

Peter