Did you try FileListMBS class in MBS plugin? It’s using the OS functions.
FindFirstFile on Windows and FSOpenIterator on Mac.
The key is to avoid folderitem class for speed.
Not true. Almost all my apps use shell. I even have one that is a GUI to a shell command.
I believed wrong, then. I had one once rejected because it used helpers extensively so it may have been a matter of excess, rather than whether it used them at all 
[quote=144794:@Christian Schmitz]Did you try FileListMBS class in MBS plugin? It’s using the OS functions.
FindFirstFile on Windows and FSOpenIterator on Mac.
The key is to avoid folderitem class for speed.[/quote]
Indeed, FolderItem, for all its usefulness, is a hog.
I hadn’t tried your plug-ins because I have been specifically asked to not use any third-party binaries (all source code for the app is expected to be documented in the end). I’ll see what I can find about the functions, thanks for the hint!
FSOpenIterator is deprecated in 10.8, maybe look at NSDirectoryEnumerator?
Could also be that the reviewer was more stupid than usual 
The following will give you a list of directory entries, very quickly (on Win32 target at least).
Function FastItems(extends f as FolderItem) As FolderItem()
#if Not TargetWin32
return nil
#endif
// Return all of the files within a folder in the quickest way possible.
// courtesy: http://forums.realsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13692&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=folderItem+aaron&start=15
// With modificaitons by me to use NativePath, corrected a minor bug and ignore ".", ".." entries.
// NOTE: This is windows only....XP to present.
Soft Declare Function FindFirstFileA Lib "Kernel32" ( path as CString, data as Ptr ) as Integer
Soft Declare Function FindFirstFileW Lib "Kernel32" ( path as WString, data as Ptr ) as Integer
Soft Declare Function FindNextFileA Lib "Kernel32" ( handle as Integer, data as Ptr ) as Boolean
Soft Declare Function FindNextFileW Lib "Kernel32" ( handle as Integer, data as Ptr ) as Boolean
Declare Sub FindClose Lib "Kernel32" ( handle as Integer )
dim ret( -1 ) as FolderItem
dim handle as Integer
// Sanity check
if not f.Directory then return ret
dim data as MemoryBlock
if System.IsFunctionAvailable( "FindFirstFileW", "Kernel32" ) then
data = new MemoryBlock( 592 )
handle = FindFirstFileW( f.NativePath + "*.*", data )
else
data = new MemoryBlock( 318 )
handle = FindFirstFileA( f.NativePath + "*.*", data )
end if
if handle <> -1 then
// Loop over all of the items in using the handle and the find data
dim done as Boolean
do
// Add the current item
dim temp as FolderItem
if System.IsFunctionAvailable( "FindFirstFileW", "Kernel32" ) then
temp = GetFolderItem(f.NativePath+data.WString(44),FolderItem.PathTypeNative) //FolderItem( data.WString( 44 ), FolderItem.PathTypeAbsolute )
// Loop to the next item
done = FindNextFileW( handle, data )
else
temp = GetFolderItem(f.NativePath+data.WString(44),FolderItem.PathTypeNative) //FolderItem( data.WString( 44 ), FolderItem.PathTypeAbsolute )
// Loop to the next item
done = FindNextFileA( handle, data )
end if
// Add the current item to our list
// Ignore . and ..
Dim tmpString as String = temp.Name
If tmpString <> "." and tmpString <> ".." then
ret.Append( temp )
End If
loop until not done
FindClose( handle )
end if
return ret
End FunctionGood point. Will check it out instead.
Funny how nobody would disagree with the initial premise in this sentence.
I put together an example NSDirectoryEnumerator module to see how fast it is… pretty fast. (enumerated 279,000 items in 22 seconds)
I think most of that time is the Listbox. Instead of AddRow I just appended the paths to a string array and collected 134123 items in 1.77 seconds. Very Nice
That 22 seconds is with the “List paths” unchecked, so it’s just looping through the listings. I think I need more ram, or maybe my SSD is getting past it’s time…
You can also specify the options… I think you can specify whether it returns directories or just plain files, hidden files, traverse bundles… I didn’t want to get too deep though 
Nice work Jim!
I’m getting an ObjCException if I select certain directories (copied over from my old Mac for some reason).
and this is the line it errors on:
[quote]nsenum.handle=enumeratorAtURLincludingPropertiesForKeysoptions(fm,nsurl,nil,0,nil)[/quote]
Try a search and replace and replace initWithString with initFileURLWithPath. I reuploaded the example with the oops fixed and the class is now self contained… I might add some of the options if I have some free time.
Ok, last iteration…
DirectoryListing.xojo_binary_project
I changed it to a module with a single method that returns an array of filepaths. It accepts options to ignore hidden files, do a shallow listing, and not include bundle contents.
I’m using the allObjects selector so that I can use redim on the output array rather than appending to the array… should be super-ultra-fast now. 
It’s working brilliantly now…thank you!
it no longer works in Xojo2014R3
error on
if ShallowCheck.Value then options=options + NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsSubdirectoryDescendants
if NoBundlesCheck.Value then options=options + NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsPackageDescendants
if NoHiddenCheck.Value then options=options + NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsHiddenFilesUndefined Operator Type NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options does not define “+” with Type NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options
got it working in Xojo2014R3
PushButton1
Listbox1.DeleteAllRows
dim f As FolderItem=SelectFolder
dim options As NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options
dim res() as string= NSDirectoryEnumerator.ItemsInDirectory(f.NativePath,options)
if ListCheck.Value then
for each item as String in res
if ShallowCheck.Value then options=NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsSubdirectoryDescendants
if NoBundlesCheck.Value then options=NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsPackageDescendants
if NoHiddenCheck.Value then options=NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsHiddenFiles
Listbox1.AddRow item
next
end if
Label1.Text=str(res.Ubound+1)+" items"Function ItemsInDirectory(mypath as string,options as NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options=NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.Default) As string()
declare function NSClassFromString lib "Cocoa" (classname as CFStringRef) as ptr
declare function allObjects lib "Cocoa" selector "allObjects" (obj as ptr) as Ptr
declare function count lib "Cocoa" selector "count" (obj as ptr) as integer
declare function path lib "Cocoa" selector "path" (obj as ptr) as CFStringRef
declare function objectAtIndex lib "Cocoa" selector "objectAtIndex:" (obj as ptr,index as integer) as Ptr
declare function alloc lib "Cocoa" selector "alloc" (obj as ptr) as Ptr
declare sub release lib "Cocoa" selector "release" (obj as ptr)
declare function init lib "Cocoa" selector "init" (obj as ptr) as Ptr
declare function initFileURLWithPath lib "Cocoa" selector "initFileURLWithPath:" _
(obj as ptr,path as CFStringRef) as Ptr
Declare Function enumeratorAtURLincludingPropertiesForKeysoptions lib "Cocoa" _
selector "enumeratorAtURL:includingPropertiesForKeys:options:errorHandler:" _
(obj_ref as ptr,url as ptr,keys as ptr,mask as NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options,handler as ptr) as ptr
dim fm As ptr=init(alloc(NSClassFromString("NSFileManager")))
dim nsurl as ptr=initFileURLWithPath(alloc(NSClassFromString("NSURL")),mypath)
dim res() As String
dim myenum as ptr=enumeratorAtURLincludingPropertiesForKeysoptions(fm,nsurl,nil,options,nil)
dim allres As ptr=allObjects(myenum)
ReDim res(count(allres)-1)
for i as integer=0 to res.Ubound
res(i)=path(objectAtIndex(allres,i))
next
release(fm)
release(nsurl)
Return res
End Function
Xojo used to implicitly convert enums to integers and back so you could add them like that. Now you need to explicitly cast those lines, which is a mouthful…
if ShallowCheck.Value then options = NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options( integer(options) + integer(NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsSubdirectoryDescendants) )
if NoBundlesCheck.Value then options = NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options( integer(options) + integer(NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsPackageDescendants) )
if NoHiddenCheck.Value then options = NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options( integer(options) + integer(NSDirectoryEnumerator.Options.NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsHiddenFiles) )
Or maybe there’s a way to define + on enums?
Hmmm - it does not even remotely come close to the speed of Thomas Tempelmann’s “Find File” tool. I wonder how he did that …
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
I believe he uses FSCatalogSearch listed here (sorry, link doesn’t scroll to the function). Everything there is marked deprecated by 10.8 though and apple recommends using Spotlight, which Thomas says is slower. Maybe equivalent uber-fast searching has been added to Spotlight since.