VMS & TDS: a summary so far

[K. Berry]

    I can't agree with this: speed is purely a function of the processor,

I believe the speed of the disk is the limiting factor.

    what do non-VMS TDS systems do?

As Sebastian said, web2c supports a file (ls-R) that contains a recursive
directory listing of all files in the tree. ls-R is read at the first
reference and serves as the ``cache''.

In the default configuration, if a file is not found in the cache, it is
then looked for on disk. Thus, if you install a new file in the tree, it
will be found (just very slowly, by comparison). (Many people disable
this, though, and use only the cache file -- their choice.)

If on the other hand you install a new file in the tree and an old file
by the same name (that can be found along the same paths) still exists
in the cache file and on the disk, then the old file will be
found. That's the price you pay.

    is a compliant TeX required to do the same thing for TFM files?).

I don't understand what you mean. Caching is not required for TDS
compliance, because when we asked all the developers we could find, most
of them didn't want to commit to implementing it.

    I want to be able to edit a file, create a new version, and _know_
    TeX will find the new version the very next time it runs.

In that case, you obviously can't have a simple cache file as outlined
above. Your call.