jack@cca.CCA.COM (Jack Orenstein) (08/03/87)
After getting all the "I love my Amiga" responses to my poll a few weeks ago, I went down to the local computer store and picked up an A1000 and some PD software. I have a question about how AmigaDOS 1.2 locates commands. I copied a bunch of commands to ram:c and assigned c: to ram:c. Sometimes, a command will check the disk, and if workbench is not present, ask me to supply it. If I repeat the command though, the floppy is not consulted. Why is the disk being checked and how can I avoid it? (This wouldn't be too serious, but I only have one floppy for now.) Thanks Jack Orenstein
ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer) (08/03/87)
In article <18542@cca.CCA.COM> jack@cca.CCA.COM (Jack Orenstein) writes: >I have a question about how AmigaDOS 1.2 locates commands. I copied a bunch of >commands to ram:c and assigned c: to ram:c. Sometimes, a command will >check the disk, and if workbench is not present, ask me to supply it. >If I repeat the command though, the floppy is not consulted. Why is the disk >being checked and how can I avoid it? Some commands require the use of various disk-based resources, such as disk based fonts (Topaz 8 and Topaz 9 are the only fonts in ROM), libraries, device handlers, etc... The system has a nice caching scheme by which it will cache fonts, libraries, etc, so that when you run the command again it will not require the disk access. (Unless you are very short on memory, in which case the system might flush it out in the mean time.) I imagine in the case of commands in the C: directory, they are probably looking for libraries rather than fonts. So you might just copy the contents of libs: over to ram also and assign libs:. If you've got enough ram, you might want to copy all of l:, libs:, fonts:, and devs:! While we're on the topic --- Once I heard someone mention the possibility of keeping the contents of C:, LIBS:, etc in compressed form (in one file) and uncompress it after copying this single file into VD0: (or RAM: too, I guess...) Is anybody using this method? Is the savings in disk space and boot-up time worth it? My Manx and TeX disks could certainly use some more space! Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu
bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) (08/04/87)
>I have a question about how AmigaDOS 1.2 [CLI] locates commands. I copied a >bunch of commands to ram:c and assigned c: to ram:c... Assign redirects *all* of the command searching to ram:. Better is to use "path ram:c". This will search ram:c *first* then, if not found, look to your old c:. With this method you copy the most used commands (cd, run, x, list, dir, type) and leave the rest on disk. This also saves memory, but you already bought and extra 2 megs, right? :-) :-) :-) Another good trick for one disk drive CLI users is to take advantage of the "?". For example, to get "info" about a disk, type "info ?", wait, put the disk in, and then hit <return>. Since "info" returns information on the current disk in the drive, the only other possible way to use it would be to have it copied into ram (as above). >Jack Orenstein ----- |\ /| . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH) {o O} . ( " ) bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce U "Success leads to stagnation; stagnation leads to failure."