TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA (12/27/86)
I'm sure this is a dumb question, the answer to which has been posted here many times before, or which is buried in my manuals ... but How do I set up a bootable disk so that it initially loads one or more files to ram-disk before starting up? (start up either from the disk or from the ram-disk) -- the particular applications I have in mind are getting ALL of appleworks to the ram disk (it loads some of itself, but not all -- when you specify a printer it seems to have to have the real disk in place) or in getting the dictionaries from a spelling checker (pinpoint doc checker) to the ram. I know pinpoint will charge you X$ for some utiliites to do that, but there's gotta be public domain/ and/or simple something to do it. (This is for a //GS) (3.5" drive) (1 M RAM)
OAF.G.PELLER%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (Adam Peller) (12/30/86)
Message-ID: <12266825983.40.OAF.G.PELLER@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU>
It wasnt a dumb question... I just spent the last week setting up appleworks
on my //e, and installing pinpoint can be a little confusing...
I made 2 disks (this probably wont be a problem for you, as you should be
able to fit everything on 1 3.5" disk):
/AW.STARTUP/:PRODOS, BASIC.SYSTEM, STARTUP
/DICTIONARY/ (subdirectory) MAIN.DICT and AUX.DICT.S
disk #2: /APPLEWORKS/:RESET.SYSTEM, APLWORKS.SYSTEM, SEG files,
/SYSTEM.FILES/ (subdirectory) MULTIDRIVE.PRO (ramdisk software)
and COPY, a utility from Beagle Bros BIGU disk.
/ACCESSORY/ (another sub) with all .PP pinpoint accessory files
the subdirectories arent necessary, but theyre neat & use the full power of
ProDOS.
Copy is one of the most useful prodos utilities... its a 3 block SYS file
which creates a COPY command... you just type COPY file1,file2 and it does!
I used the Multidrive Ramdisk software from Checkmate which sets up /MRAM/.
I have 640k, I set up Appleworks with the spelling checker, dictionary, key
player (macros), and pinpoint utilities -- all loaded into memory. The
files take up 2 FULL disks -- a very tight fit. They take about 2.5 min to
load into RAM, and then they take up about 400k of the RAM, leaving me with
a 100k desktop.
You will need to set up the 2 disks listed above, then create a startup
program to actually load everything into memory.
Startup should begin by executing the COPY program, then the RAM drive
software (you will need to setup a partition -- about 450k for the RAMdisk,
the rest for AppleWorks). Then start copying. First the /DICTIONARY/ sub,
then /ACCESSORY/, then all the AppleWorks files. (print chr$(4);"copy
/dictionary/main.dict,/mram/main.dict )
Last, set the prefix to your RAMdisk (print chr$(4);"prefix /mram" ) then
execute appleworks (print chr$(4);"-aplworks.system" ).
That oughta do it. If you want a copy of my program, let me know.
Im not too sure about some of those Pinpoint programs. I've had the spelling
checker bomb on me a few times. Maybe its because im also running Keyplayer
and all that other stuff. Has anyone had any luck/problems with these
programs?
Pinpoint also sells the RAM enhancement kit, which is supposed to copy a list
of files to RAM, but it doesnt support my memory card. It might be worth
looking into.
Good luck.
Adam Peller -- ADAMP%OZ@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (Arpa)
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