I don't have numbers to back up the statement, but using HFS+ non-journaled is a good idea in certain volumes that require absolute speed, without worrying (too much) about a possible "data loss" or "data corruption" in case of power failure or similar.
When is using HFS+ Non-journaled a BAD idea?
External (USB, FW, ESata) drives that are connected and reconnected often: It's usually a bad idea, since these drives tend to be accidentally disconnected very often and or their power sources unplugged.
Partitions where data integrity is important and protection from an unexpected power loss is a must. (Documents, Music, Videos, Backups, etc).
When is using HFS+ Non-journaled a GOOD idea?
Scratch, Temp, trivial storage and similar drives and partitions, where speed is > data integrity in case of power fail. You want your Final Cut scratch volume to be non-journaled (you do have an UPS anyway, don't you?). You want your Photoshop temp to be non-journaled. Drives to copy stuff around (a Pen drive for example if you take care of properly ejecting).
Any other drive that requires portability and compatibility like you correctly pointed out.
Remember, maintaining the journal adds a small overhead, but the benefit in case of improper volume dismount are important, no only to avoid a full disk "scan" at startup or re-mount, but also in terms of making sure that data is not corrupted in the first place.
Mounting a non-journaled drive that has been incorrectly unmounted, will cause a fsck scan, whereas the journaled drive will be able to be up and running in a shorter period of time (scanning the journal and applying uncommited transactions).
Regarding Speed and tests, I don't have much info to back up the above claim, however, as far as I know the speed difference not only is very small and even hard to notice, but in some case Journaled filesystem is faster than non-journaled.
Turn out that despite the overhead of the journal, some operations can be made asynchronously in the Journaled drive, whereas the non-journaled version has to perform things synchronously.
For reference I googled a little bit trying to find an old comparison (the numbers are probably valid since HFS+ hasn't really changed much since their first iterations in OSX, other than adding Inline Attribute Data records, and access control list file security and maybe something else.
Here's the website with the charts:
Comparison Between HFS+ Journaled vs HFS+ Non-journaled
TL;DR:
The file copy/duplicate/copy sequence
was pretty much equally fast for both
journaled/non-journaled HFS. The same
sequence with the folder was again
somewhat faster with the journaled HFS
(emphasis mine)
Conclusion
I am somewhat surprised to see the above results, as I was kind of convinced that using Non-Journaled was really faster for some operations, but apparently the little cases where it can make a difference, it's overweighted by the "safety" of Journaling.
Each has it's own benefits and weaknesses... these are the technical differences between the two.
Each attribute will be marked with an "M" for Minimizing or "H" for Hiding. While it's very subjective, I'll put the one that I think is better on top
Hiding windows:
- M: Individual windows can be minimized.
- H: All windows must be hidden.
Accessing windows via Expose:
- M: Windows can be accessed via Expose on the bottom row.
- H: There's no way to access the app's windows via Expose.
Accessing windows via Application Switcher:
- H: Windows are restored exactly as they were when using the Application Switcher.
- M: Windows cannot be restored via the Application Switcher.
Accessing windows via Dock:
- H: Clicking the dock icon (or any window in the icon's menu) restores all of the app's windows, except those that were minimized.
- M: Clicking the app's icon in the dock only opens up the last window minimized, and only if there aren't any visible windows.
Application Switcher icon location:
- H: The app's icon moves to the right-hand side in the Application Switcher, moving it out of the way.
- M: The app's icon stays in the same place, even if all windows are minimized.
Indication of hidden windows:
- M: Minimized windows are displayed in the dock, and diamonds are displayed next to each window's title. (There's a setting is System Preferences to hide the windows from appearing in the dock.)
- H: No indication that the app/windows are hidden whatsoever, not even diamonds appear next to the window's titles. (This can be changed by running the following in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES; killall Dock. You can undo this by typing: defaults delete com.apple.Dock showhidden; killall Dock.)
Switching focus to a new application:
- H: After hiding an app, the focus is sent to another app.
- M: Even if you minimize an app's last window, it will still remain focused.
Other Differences:
- H: You cannot hide all open applications. At least one has to remain visible.
- H: As @Ian pointed out, some apps will use up less resources when they are hidden.
Best Answer
.scptis in binary..applescriptis in text.You can use Spotlight/Finder's find function to search for words in
.applescript. You cannot do this with.scpt.Since
.scptis already compiled, it's quicker to launch.My favorite thing about
.applescriptis that I can write that a script that read/write onto itself, so that variables are saved for next run without creating a separate file to house the variables.