[Zope-dev] BTree folders: opinions?

Steve Alexander steve@cat-box.net
Tue, 05 Sep 2000 10:45:07 +0100


I've been reading the discussions on benchmarks of BTreeFolder verus
standard ObjectManager dict based folders.

I have a BTreeFolder w/ Customizer support that I'd like to include in
the DataSkinAddons package for its next release. I'll probably release a
LargeUI Folder w/ Customizer Support, that has the BTreeFolder UI
anyway.

However, I'm not sure whether to store the folder contents in a dict or
a BTree.

Are dictionaries or BTrees the way to go for folders with lots of
sub-objects?
Anyone tried any other benchmarks?

I *suppose* it could even be configurable:

How about this for an idea:

* Management interface uses the standard Folder interface when the 
  number of objects in the contents are less than a certain amount.
  With more objects, it switches to the BTree Folder UI.
  This number can be reconfigured as an attribute of the folder.

* You can switch between using a dict and a BTree to store the
  sub-objects, on an instance-by-instance basis. The switch-over
  will be slow, but it will be easier than changing the base-class
  of existing instances.

Comments?

--
Steve Alexander
Software Engineer
Cat-Box limited
http://www.cat-box.net