[comp.sys.amiga] DMouse artifact

kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (06/27/88)

In article <6585@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, ins_adjb@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Daniel Jay Barrett) writes:
> In article <8eXJ77752K1010c6iYg@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) writes:
> >In article <6558@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, ins_adjb@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Daniel Jay Barrett) writes:
> ::      I have experienced this problem too, but ONLY after I added
> :: DMouse to my startup-sequence.  I had assumed that DMouse is looking
> :: for the Workbench disk, not ConMan.  The problem does NOT occur if
> :: I use PopCLI instead of DMouse.
> :
> :I would bet that you are using the "from" option on the newcli command
> :with DMouse to startup something (shell, or whatever).
>
>         Yes, I am using "from".  HOWEVER, all of my system directories
> are assigned to my hard drive, including "S:".  My workbench disk
> still gets a disk hit!

Doesn't matter.  I have *all* my system assigns to directories in vd0:, and
had the same problem.  Putting a "cd" (to what I consider my "home" dir in
vd0:, as Matt suggested) cured the problem.

As I understand it, what is happening is that when the program you're starting
up in your "from" file tries to get a lock on it's initial current dir, it's
getting a NULL.  This means "the boot device" to some component of AmigaDOS,
and since that currently means "df0:", it puts up a requester for that device.

Note that the request can be satisfied by putting/having *any* formatted disk
in df0:, including a blank one.  Also, if you click on "cancel" a time or two,
the requester will go away, and everything will proceed normally.

I dunno whose "anomaly" this is, but I think it's really the fault of the
compiler startup code (could be mistaken here), as it does not happen with
PopCli-II, which was released using one of the older versions of Lattice.

It does happen with DMouse (Manx v3.6), and something quite similar (if not
exactly the same) happens with PopCli-III (newer version of Lattice).  This
was the reason I went back to the older PopCli-II, after all attempts to
eliminate it failed with PopCli-III (though I didn't try the "cd" trick on
it back then).

A final note.  PopCli-II initiated CLI's inhereted the path that existed when
they were started.  DMouse initiated CLI's do not, so you'll need to have a
path command in your "from" file following the "cd" command to emulate what
you got for free with PopCli.  Seems like a step backwards to me (sigh).

/kim


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dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (06/30/88)

>I'm curious as to why Matt chose not to use a CLI environment for
>launching the command, as it would allow for inheritance of directory,
>paths, stacksize, etc.  Matt?
>
>  -Bill Hawes

	Ahhh... Several reasons, the least of which is the incredible
waste of memory having the CLI structure, stack, associated file locks,
etc...

	But mainly, since there are a limited number of CLI's, I don't
want drivers, handlers, and other non-interactive programs wasting them.

					-Matt

hawes@dino.ulowell.edu (Bill Hawes) (07/07/88)

I'm certainly in favor of minimizing the amount of memory used by software,
one of the main reasons I choose to code in assembly language.  On the other
hand, since DMouse potentially replaces several other background-type goodies,
Matt has already saved memory by combining the functionality.  But if people
are going to have to use PopCLI II to get the search path, wouldn't it be
better to use a CLI for DMouse?

The limit of 20 CLI's doesn't seem too severe -- the only time I've hit it
is when purposely testing something for that failure mode, or when debugging
a program that keeps hanging, so that it's easier to keep grabbing CLI's
(using PopCLI II) rather than rebooting.

  -Bill