Simple question:
When should I use what?

-File for small files (Saved settings in .ini files) ?
-BufferedFile for big files that get changed frequently (Logfiles) ?
-MmFile for very big files (Database files) ?

And another:
What is the difference between buffered files and memory-mapped files?
MmFiles can be flush()ed, BufferedFiles can't, I know. But is this really the only reason why MmFile is seperated from the other file classes?

Thanks,
Florian

"Florian Sonnenberger" <nairolf@online.de> wrote in message news:d5odq6$1b52$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Simple question:
> When should I use what?
>
> -File for small files (Saved settings in .ini files) ?
> -BufferedFile for big files that get changed frequently (Logfiles) ?
> -MmFile for very big files (Database files) ?
>
> And another:
> What is the difference between buffered files and memory-mapped files?
> MmFiles can be flush()ed, BufferedFiles can't, I know. But is this really
> the only reason why MmFile is seperated from the other file classes?
>
> Thanks,
> Florian

BufferedFiles can be flushed, too (it writes the buffer contents to the OS file). To me the biggest difference is that you can't change the length of a mem-mapped file but you can grow a BufferedFile. Another difference that probably shouldn't be there is that a MmFile must be mapped all at once - it doesn't support mapping a small window of the backing file. A BufferedFile only buffers a small (8K or so) window of the backing file. OSes that I know allow mem-mapped files to map a portion of the backing file but MmFile always seems to map the whole thing.