installation directory

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tlane

installation directory

Post by tlane »

In Photoshop CS, start-up is slowed down significantly by having files other than .8bf files in the plug-in folder (because it reads every file).

ColorWasher installs a whole bunch of files other than .8bf files in the plug-ins folder, including the manual, subdirectories (e.g., presets, etc.).

My question: are any of the files installed other than ColorWasher201.8bf necessary to have in this location, or can I move them to a different folder?

Thanks,

Ted

P.S. I am really enjoying this new (to me) plug-in.

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Post by HaraldHeim »

I don't know why you think that other files in the plugin folder slow down the Photoshop startup. Photoshop ignores files that don't have a file extention of .8bf, .8ba, .8bi, .8be and so on, so there should be no slow down.

Theoretically you only need the ColorWasher.8bf and the two .ini files in the plugin folder. But then some things won't work, e.g. the ? button won't display the manual, preset options won't automatically display the preset folder, Log Settings feature won't work and so on. So I don't recommend it.

tlane

Post by tlane »

I think it slows down loading of Photoshop CS (this new version only) because the programmers for Adobe say so (Chris Cox for one; see the photoshop forums at Adobe's Web site). A common complaint at the Adobe forums regarding the new Photoshop CS version is slow program start-up; a common suggested solution is the removal of all non .8bf files from the plug-ins directory.

ColorWasher's installation behavior of putting manuals, help files, etc., in the plug-ins folder is highly unusual. Obviously, at least one or more other software plug-in developers are also "guilty" of similar behavior or the above suggested solution would be meaningless...

It would be a nice enhancement to ColorWasher if this default directory could be changed for all the non-essential files.

Ted

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Post by HaraldHeim »

Did Chris Cox explicitly say that Photoshop scans all files in the plugin folder?

Of course it can make Photoshop start faster with less plugins in it, but that only refers to the .8b* files. I can't see a reason for Photoshop to investigate all files in the plugins folder.

Photoshop was and is always staring up quite slow compared to many other applications. It was the case with Version 6 and 7, too. Faster processors and harddrives are up to a certain point. Still, Adobe could do a lot to make Photoshop start up faster. For example Paint Shop Pro scans for plugins in the background while you can already work with it. If Photoshop would do that, it would certainly start up much faster.

I only know very few plugins that only put the 8bf file into the plugin folder. There is also nothing mentioned in the SDK to not put other files in the plugin folder.

Guest

Post by Guest »

I am going to do the hard work for you, since you do not seem to trust me. Everything I have said is based on actual data - apparently you do not keep up with advances in Photoshop.

So, hang on while I do YOUR work, and search the Adobe Photoshop forum for you (for free), while you continue to make money from folks like me that buy your software. (I told you where to look - clearly, you did not take the time to do so.)

Ted

Guest

Post by Guest »

Here is one response from Chris Cox:

Chris Cox - 02:30pm Dec 8, 2003 PDT (#5 of 7)

In CS we had to switch to some newer OS APIs that aren't as fast as the old APIs. That means that the increased load time is proportional to the number of files in the plugins folder.

--------------------------------------------------------

There are many, many, many more responses in the Adobe forum for you to see ON YOUR OWN TIME, by Chris and others.

Please at least be informed.

Ted

tlane

Post by tlane »

I see that I missed part of the quote... the full quote is as follows:

Chris Cox - 02:30pm Dec 8, 2003 PDT (#5 of 7)

The "problem" is that Photoshop has to check all the files to see if they are plugins - and putting thousands of art files in the plugins folder just slows things down.

In CS we had to switch to some newer OS APIs that aren't as fast as the old APIs. That means that the increased load time is proportional to the number of files in the plugins folder.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Please do your own search, and see what you find - you will be amazed!

Ted

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Post by HaraldHeim »

Thanks for the info. I will do some tests and see if it really makes a difference if the ColorWasher files are not in the plugin folder. I don't expect that it will make a difference, but I will see. Probably it just means a slowdown of a small fraction of a second to have additional files there. So it probably won't even be meassurable.

You probably misunderstood me. I didn't mean to imply that I don't believe you. It is just hard to believe that Adobe would do such a thing, because it makes no sense to check all files in the plugin folder. Oh well, they did several other things in the past that didn't make so much sense, so I guess I should trust that they could such a thing :-))).

No, seriously, I guess Chris is only refering to the fact that Photoshop has to read in the contents of all sub folders of the plugin folder. For example if you change the extention of plugin files, they don't appear in Photoshop. That means that Photoshop isn't examining each file, otherwise these plugins would appear in Photoshop.

Aynway, if there are many files in one of sub folders in the plugin folder, this reading of the folder content takes a bit more time. He is refering to thousands of files and not just 50 or 60 like in ColorWasher. These few files in ColorWasher probably won't make a difference.

Do you want me to publish the exact results of my speed test here?

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Post by HaraldHeim »

Ok, here are my speed tests. When runing Photoshop for the first time it took around 15 seconds to start up. After that it only took approx. 5 seconds to start up:

Running Photoshop CS with the unusual 137 ColorWasher files in the plugins folder: 5.53 seconds

Running Photoshop CS with only the ColorWasher.8bf file in the plugins folder: 5.51 seconds.

Ok, that is a 2/100 second that it takes Photoshop to scan for the 136 extra files of ColorWasher.

I'm using a 2.4 GHz processor and a rather old 15 GB hard drive that is relatively slow compared to the latest hard drives. So on the newest computer with an new hard drive there should be as good as no difference detectable. Of course with an slower hard drive it maybe one or two hundredth seconds slower, but who cares?

So this issue was probably cooked up a bit too much on the Adobe Forums and highly exagerated. Photoshop starts up quite slowly compared with other graphics tools, but plugins have only an effect if you have hundreds or thousands of them. And other files in the plugins folder have only an effect if there are several thousands and that probably only if they are in different folders.

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