chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/02/87)
A while back I asked folks how they used their large memory systems, both here and on Delphi. The responses I got here are included below (the Delphi ones are on a different machine) but I'll briefly summarize as well. The big difference seems to be whether or not you have a hard disk. If you're a floppy system, you use a RAMDisk and put all of your system software and applications in it -- with a 1 megabyte Ramdisk on a 2 megabyte system, that still gives you lots of memory for switcher or large programs. If you have a hard disk, the general trend was to use disk caching, so that the things that got stuck in RAM were the things being used. Feelings split between people telling me to avoid the Apple caching like the plague and people who were using it just fine. Folks using LSC tend to use a small cache area and put it under Switcher. LSC wants about 800K for itself anyway, so the more memory the better. And lots of folks use Switcher in various ways, of course. Thanks for the feedback! chuq ---- From: John Bruner I have a "512K" enhanced with 2 megabytes of memory (using a Dove upgrade). I don't have a single usage pattern for the memory; instead, it depends heavily upon what I'm doing. Most of my Mac work is program-development related, which I suppose will bias my results. When I'm using MPW I configure a large disc cache (often 1Mb). MPW is slow and needs all the help it can get. My opinion is that a disc cache is a better use of the memory than a RAM disc, although I don't have any statistics to back that up. I usually use Lightspeed C under Switcher. (LSC works well with Switcher, creating a private partition when a project file is executed. This is really great.) In this case I set the cache size down to 96-128K and let Switcher use the memory. LSC's preferred memory size is pretty bit (700k+ I think, but I don't have the figure handy). Having all of the memory allows me to switch between at least two more applications. From: Bob Van Valzah I have 1Mb in a Plus and can hardly imagine living without it. Since I have a hard disk, I run RAM cache off. My normal "working set" is to run Switcher with 410K for MORE, 200K for uw, and 196K for Finder. With screen save turned on for all three applications, I still have a little bit of free memory in case I want to scrap the finder and launch something bigger. For the sorts of things I'm doing these days, this setup is actually better than using one of our Suns. If I get back into full-time Unix hacking again, I might go back to a Sun. From: Mark Wittenberg I've had 2Mb for about a year and a half (about the first half of which I had the old ROMs), and the configuration I've settled into is: 1.25 Mb ramdisk no cache I load the system and applications into ramdisk. Since mostly I write programs with LightspeedC, I copy all the header files and the projects into ramdisk too. If I'm in a good mood I copy the sources too. (I'm using RamSafe from CJS Systems in Berkeley -- with the LEVCO upgrade this gives a ramdisk that survives reboots -- including the reboot switch, but not the power switch :-). Of course, a wild program can still write over the ramdisk, but about 98% of the time this works fine). I don't have a hard disk, so this lets me run w/o floppies, except for saving source to disk periodically. I turn off the cache as I can make better use of it as ramdisk, and RamSafe requires the cache to be off when it starts up (I set is as the startup application), and that way I don't have to remember to turn it off. I'd like a hard disk, though. From: David Ackerman I have a Max2 (the 2 meg from Mac Memory) and I shudder to think what life would be like without it. I have never had the need for a second floppy drive, because I usually run half-n-half: 1 meg application, 1 meg ramdisk. I also use a 128K cache...anything more seemed to make no difference, so why waste the memory? Occasionally, if I'm working on a project that warrants it, I will run with only the system stuff on the ramdisk so I can make it smaller, and then use Switcher. It's nice to be able to have a ramdisk running alongside Switcher as it runs 3 applications in *big* partitions and the Finder in a 192K partition. Once you really start using it, you will wonder how you got along without it. And, of course, it really helps my compiling a lot, too, which is the original reason I got it. Now, if the 1 megabit chips would just come down to a reasonable price, I could plug'em in and have 4 megs! :-) From: Piter Jonker This is the way I think is the best way (because I did it my way) to use the 2 megabyte RAM. Use a disk cache, not the standard apple one, but something like turbocharger, at least one which is write throuhg. Make it about 200 k. It will then keep the directory structure for one or more disks. Further, use a rather large RAMDISK (version 3.1 or higher for HFS) on about 1300k , and copy all the applications you wanna use in one MAC session on the ramdisk. E.g. Your favorite C compiller, linker, editor, all header files libraries, etc. Use a Editor with a "2 disk write" option. Each time one write to the ramdisk, an one to the floppy. (QUED has a 2 disk write option) In this way ya can develop *VERY* quick from Ramdisk, an if you MAC should crash totaly on the just developped appl, your standard floppy contains all source. Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove -- MacIntosh Clan Motto