OPTIMIZERS  by Steven Bolton  Ed: Another good optimizer which I use for Megadisc is Quarterback  Tools - I mention this because Steven couldn't compare it in this lot. ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ##  ABOUT OPTIMIZERS  So you have gotten yourself the best personal computer available. The Amiga offers incredible power in graphics and sound abilities, impressive options for applications software, large software availability and it's a fast machine. Speed is something that the Amiga has when running a program but what about the half hour or so of disk grinding that has to be put up with while loading anything? Optimizing is basically the process of sorting out files, header blocks, data blocks etc. on a disk and arranging them in some kind of order so that everything is kept together. The Amiga DOS is not very efficient when it comes to writing data to a disk. The data just seems to be written wherever there is space. When optimized the disk structure is arranged in an order that makes it easier to find what is needed. This saves on loading times and also wear-and-tear on the drive as the drive heads don't need to jump from place to place looking for what it wants. There are various optimizing programs available, and the most well known is probably Blitz-A-Disk (B.A.D.). Another more common one is the optimize option on the X-Copy Copying Program (V2.0 and later). There are also different ways that optimizing can be performed depending on what you want achieved. You can have a general optimization which will usually give a better performance all round or have the emphasise on CLI or Workbench. The CLI will speed up any listings of a disk's contents either through CLI or from a program requester. The Workbench mode will speed up the appearance of icons and is the easiest way of seeing the effects of optimizing. This article has been written for the purpose of showing how optimizing affects loading of a disk (L), opening of an icon (O) and CLI listing of a disks contents (C). I tried to beg, borrow or buy as many different optimizers and various versions of them to use in this comparison. I have found that articles and comparisons of programs usually only compare the latest versions of the programs but not everyone runs out to buy the latest versions of each and every program. Most people will probably have one or more of any programs in a given comparison but they will probably be an earlier version which sometimes makes it difficult to see how they stand up against new versions or older versions of different programs. The comparisons, for example, of compression programs are the most difficult to compare results with any results of older versions of compressors that you may have made yourself unless you have the same set-up and test programs (those being compressed) as the comparison was made using. Also I haven't yet seen any comparisons made between optimizing programs and wanted to know which of the ones I have were the better. I conducted the comparisons on an Amiga 500 (V1.3) with 1meg of memory and 3 drives (1 internal, 2 external). The programs I optimized were chosen with availability in mind, ie most people should have them. I moved all icons on the test programs to the root directory to slow down loading of icons on the workbench screen, and then opened the CLI and listed the contents of the disk using : DIR DF0: ALL which listed all files on the disk. I timed the loading time from when the hand/disk picture dissappears and disk loads until the CLI disappears and the WB screen appears. The opening of the window was timed from when the window appears until the mouse pointer returns to normal (ie. no Zzzz). The CLI test was timed from when I hit RETURN until the CLI prompt appeared again ( 1> ). The test subjects: Workbench 1.3 (31 icons in root directory) Deluxe Paint II V2.0 (18 icons in root directory) TextCraft Plus (12 icons in root directory) The test programs: B.A.D. V3.00 (WB mode) (CLI mode) B.A.D. V3.10 (WB mode) (CLI mode) B.A.D. V3.15 (WB mode) (CLI mode) B.A.D. V4.12 (WB mode) (CLI mode) Disk Arranger V1.2 Disk Optimizer V1.0 Tune Up II V2.4 (WB,data mode) (CLI,data mode) (WB,file mode) (CLI,file mode) X-Copy II V2.1+ X-Copy II V2.2 X-Copy III V3.0 X-Copy Professional V3.0 About the results: All times are given in seconds. Program - The optimizer Opt Time - Time taken to optimize the disk L - Time taken to load to Workbench screen O - Time taken to open disk icon and load all icons C - Time taken to completely list a disk's contents Rank (L,O,C X) - Placing for each of the 3 categories, eg 1,1,1 - fastest time for all three. 1 - fastest time, 18 - slowest time. X is the total of the three to give an all round ranking THE RESULTS: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ WORKBENCH 1.3 - L = 63.21 O = 22.53 C = 43.29 Program Opt Time L O C Rank ========================================================================= B.A.D. V3.00 (WB mode) 271.80 65.05 12.04 34.59 16, 4,18 38 (CLI mode) 276.59 62.03 25.20 30.96 9,14, 6 29 B.A.D. V3.10 (WB mode) 276.23 63.53 12.25 34.52 14, 7,17 38 (CLI mode) 278.71 61.94 25.19 30.91 7,13, 5 25 B.A.D. V3.15 (WB mode) 283.53 63.57 12.15 34.23 15, 6,15 36 (CLI mode) 285.09 61.41 25.29 30.54 6,15, 3 24 B.A.D. V4.12 (WB mode) 282.07 63.50 12.08 34.45 13, 5,16 34 (CLI mode) 284.15 62.42 25.44 31.20 11,16, 7 34 Disk Arranger V1.2 383.26 59.09 8.84 31.93 2, 3,13 18 Disk Optimizer V1.0 536.88 62.19 18.56 29.19 10,12, 1 23 Tune Up II V2.4 (WB,data mode) 423 63.20 8.33 31.94 12, 1,14 27 (CLI,data mode) 383 61.98 25.73 29.38 8,17, 2 27 (WB,file mode) 319 72.94 8.44 31.92 17, 2,12 31 (CLI,file mode) 300 73.00 31.63 30.66 18,18, 4 40 X-Copy II V2.1+ 195 59.40 13.71 31.82 4,10,10 24 X-Copy II V2.2 141 59.23 13.18 31.47 3, 9, 8 20 X-Copy III V3.0 127 58.55 13.17 31.85 1, 8,11 20 X-Copy Professional V3.1 184 59.69 14.01 31.75 5,11, 9 25 ========================================================================= Range L : 58.55 - 73.00 Average L : 62.93 Range O : 8.33 - 31.63 Average O : 16.96 Range C : 29.19 - 34.59 Average C : 31.85 Best Programs : Disk Arranger V1.2 X-Copy III V3.0 X-Copy II V2.2 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" DELUXE PAINT II V2.0 - L = 29.95 O = 17.56 C = 31.92 Program Opt Time L O C Rank ========================================================================= B.A.D. V3.00 (WB mode) 221.02 30.44 3.53 30.17 16, 1,15 32 (CLI mode) 218.84 28.97 15.28 25.29 7,15, 6 28 B.A.D. V3.10 (WB mode) 228.12 30.32 3.60 30.19 14, 4,16 34 (CLI mode) 222.75 29.12 15.47 25.28 10,18, 5 33 B.A.D. V3.15 (WB mode) 239.62 30.28 3.55 30.05 13, 3,13 29 (CLI mode) 227.69 29.09 15.44 25.22 9,17, 4 30 B.A.D. V4.12 (WB mode) 234.56 30.48 3.53 30.28 17, 2,18 37 (CLI mode) 229.06 29.34 15.40 25.16 12,16, 3 31 Disk Arranger V1.2 307.13 24.03 4.13 24.97 1, 6, 2 9 Disk Optimizer V1.0 381.69 26.10 7.03 22.94 2,12, 1 15 Tune Up II V2.4 (WB,data mode) 287 28.50 4.23 30.08 5, 7,14 26 (CLI,data mode) 293 27.61 14.96 27.68 3,13,12 28 (WB,file mode) 249 30.43 4.03 30.22 15, 5,17 37 (CLI,file mode) 233 29.19 15.00 27.28 11,14,10 35 X-Copy II V2.1+ 146 28.67 5.88 25.92 6,11, 7 24 X-Copy II V2.2 150 30.48 5.23 27.64 18,10,11 39 X-Copy III V3.0 136 29.01 5.03 26.78 8, 9, 9 26 X-Copy Professional V3.1 140 28.41 4.37 26.37 4, 8, 8 20 ========================================================================= Range L : 24.03 - 30.48 Average L : 28.92 Range O : 3.53 - 15.47 Average O : 8.09 Range C : 22.94 - 30.28 Average C : 27.30 Best Programs : Disk Arranger V1.2 Disk Optimizer V1.0 X-Copy Professional V3.1 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" TEXTCRAFT PLUS - L = 27.06 O = 15.51 C = 32.26 Program Opt Time L O C Rank ========================================================================= B.A.D. V3.00 (WB mode) 240.59 26.41 8.40 22.08 8, 9,14 31 (CLI mode) 239.28 26.98 14.19 19.41 16,13, 5 34 B.A.D. V3.10 (WB mode) 247.62 26.43 8.36 22.17 9, 7,16 32 (CLI mode) 238.75 26.51 14.44 19.31 10,16, 3 29 B.A.D. V3.15 (WB mode) 251.83 26.03 8.41 22.09 7,10,15 32 (CLI mode) 247.48 26.75 14.38 19.21 12,14, 2 28 B.A.D. V4.12 (WB mode) 248.10 26.98 8.39 21.97 15, 8,13 36 (CLI mode) 251.47 26.74 14.41 19.39 11,15, 4 30 Disk Arranger V1.2 347.69 24.18 4.56 19.19 3, 1, 1 5 Disk Optimizer V1.0 436.47 24.50 9.85 20.57 5,12, 9 26 Tune Up II V2.4 (WB,data mode) 650 26.75 8.28 22.69 13, 6,17 36 (CLI,data mode) 591 26.78 17.09 21.42 14,17,11 42 (WB,file mode) 468 28.93 8.75 23.01 18,11,18 47 (CLI,file mode) 399 28.22 17.60 21.91 17,18,12 47 X-Copy II V2.1+ 161 23.75 5.13 19.87 2, 2, 8 12 X-Copy II V2.2 152 24.50 5.23 19.53 4, 3, 6 13 X-Copy III V3.0 138 24.95 5.31 19.67 6, 4, 7 17 X-Copy Professional V3.1 156 23.47 5.85 21.12 1, 5,10 16 ========================================================================= Range L : 23.47 - 28.93 Average L : 26.05 Range O : 4.56 - 17.60 Average O : 9.92 Range C : 19.19 - 23.01 Average C : 20.81 Best Programs : Disk Arranger V1.2 X-Copy II V2.1+ X-Copy II V2.2 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" OVERALL (all 3 results totalled) - L = 120.22 O = 55.60 C = 107.47 Program Opt Time L O C Rank =========================================================================== B.A.D. V3.00 (WB mode) 733.41 121.9 23.97 84 16, 6,13 35 (CLI mode) 734.71 117.98 54.67 75.66 10,13, 4 27 B.A.D. V3.10 (WB mode) 751.97 120.28 24.21 86.88 14, 9,18 41 (CLI mode) 740.21 117.57 55.1 75.5 9,14, 3 26 B.A.D. V3.15 (WB mode) 774.98 119.88 24.11 86.37 13, 8,16 37 (CLI mode) 760.26 117.25 55.11 74.97 8,15, 2 25 B.A.D. V4.12 (WB mode) 764.73 120.96 24 86.7 15, 7,17 39 (CLI mode) 764.68 118.5 55.25 75.75 12,16, 5 33 Disk Arranger V1.2 1038.08 107.3 17.53 76.09 1, 1, 6 8 Disk Optimizer V1.0 1355.04 112.79 35.44 72.7 5,12, 1 18 Tune Up II V2.4 (WB,data mode) 1360 118.45 20.84 84.71 11, 2,14 27 (CLI,data mode) 1267 116.37 57.78 78.48 7,17, 9 33 (WB,file mode) 1036 132.3 21.22 85.15 18, 3,15 36 (CLI,file mode) 932 130.41 64.23 79.85 17,18,12 47 X-Copy II V2.1+ 502 111.82 24.72 77.61 3,11, 7 21 X-Copy II V2.2 443 114.21 23.64 78.64 6, 5,10 21 X-Copy III V3.0 401 112.51 23.51 78.3 4, 4, 8 16 X-Copy Professional V3.1 480 111.57 24.23 79.24 2,10,11 23 =========================================================================== Range L : 107.3 - 132.3 Average L : 117.89 Range O : 17.53 - 64.23 Average O : 34.98 Range C : 72.7 - 86.88 Average C : 79.81 Best Overall Program : Disk Arranger V1.2 L:112.04 % speedup O:317.17 % speedup C:141.24 % speedup ***************************************************************************  Conclusion I was totally surprised at the results I got. I assumed that B.A.D. would be the best program in the comparison but as I found out it wasn't. I had never heard of Disk Arranger V1.2 before this test so it was surprising to see it come out on top. It is up to you, the reader, as to which optimizer you would like to use and what you want from it. If you want to optimize a disk full of icons that never sees to light of the CLI then B.A.D. in WB mode would be a good choice but if it's overall performance them if you can get hold of Disk Arranger V1.2 then do so. Disk Arranger V1.2 is a very simple little program that puts up little window/requesters telling you what it wants and what it's doing. It didn't seem to like working with FAST MEMORY and it requires two drives (df0: & df1:) to run. The other programs all run on 1meg and you can usually choose the drives you want to use so if you only have one drive then they can be used. Remember though that these are only results that I have gotten and may be different to others and there may also have been some bugs in the copies that I was using which may not be in other copies of the same version (eg. an error on the master disk etc.), so if you are able to then I would recommend you do a small comparison yourself if you have any of the programs I used and try to duplicate the conditions that I used. If you then get results that are similar (allow for 5% difference in results) to mine then my comparison should be fairly accurate for you to judge for yourself. So I hope this has been of some assistance to someone out there and happy optimizing! ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ## 24 ##