Registered: Dec 2001
Location:
Posts: 11

PIVFSmgr vs PiDirect

Hi..can someone tell me hte differences of each? wats each used for and is one necessarily better over the other?

Thanks!

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 108

PiDirect allows you to run most programs right off of your memory card. You generally cannot store databases there (Unless you never write to them). PiDirect also seems to only load code that is necessary when launching apps of of your card, so it is very fast. I have had good luck with about 85% of the programs I have tried with Pidirect. In general, any program you load under PiDirect will not hotsync. i.e. If you put Wordsmith in the PiDirect directory, the program will run great, but your files will not sync.

PiVFS is an implementation of VFS included in Palm OS 4.0. VFS allows some programs and databases to be stored on memory cards. As long as the application supports it, you can read and write to VFS apps and databases on the card. When you launch a VFS program from a card, it copies the entire program from the Card into RAM, meaning it launches much slower than PiDirect and you need more RAM available on the handheld. Most new programs are VFS aware.

Launcher III supports VFS and Memplugs directly. The latest version has special features that allow some programs stored on a memory card to sync via hotsync. For this reason I use VFS and PiDirect on my Prism. Both are quite useful. As a matter of fact, PiDirect is available for all memory card enabled PalmOS devices and I would recommend it to anyone.

Hope this helps! And, I'm sure I messed up on a detail somewhere!
Doug

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 341

PiDirect (for Visor) is needed as the OS does not natively support VFS


PiDirectVFS is meant for those Palm devices with native VFS support (version 4.0, etc). My HandEra also supports VFS with its custom 3.5.3. OS so I use the VFS version of PiDirect.

Hope that helped.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

Can both be used at the same time without trouble? Seems like I read something somewhere about that causing problems but I'm not sure.

- Burns

__________________
Check out my page on Visors:
Burn's Visor page

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 341

quote:

---

Originally posted by Burns
Can both be used at the same time without trouble? Seems like I read something somewhere about that causing problems but I'm not sure.

- Burns

---

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

quote:

---

Originally posted by dequardo
I assume the answer is NO since there is no native support for VFS on any Visor module currently sold.

---

__________________
Check out my page on Visors:
Burn's Visor page

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: ???, Asia
Posts: 69

That's what PiVFS does...adds support to a non-VFS OS. You wouldn't need it otherwise. BTW, both run fine on my 16MB Prism, with CJKOS, X-Master, and a couple other trouble-causing apps.