howard@amdahl.UUCP (Howard C. Simonson) (11/25/86)
Well before the news came back, I cracked open the Fedit+ manual and figured
out what needed changing in the boot blocks to increase the system heap.
I happened to increase it to 64K (seemed like a nice round number) and
as yet have had no ill effects. As was posted by someone else (thanks),
it is necessary to change both the Version number of the boot blocks as well
as the heap size.
Now for some interesting heap trivia, especially to you Dataframe owners.
To keep an eye on things, I installed the old Uriah Heap DA. This gave me
a good view into the makeup of the system heap. Now, I have several startup
applications ( is anyone out there ever going to write a startup sequencer? )
that can be run for various effects after booting. For instance, SuperSpool,
Keeper, Ramsafe, and a couple of others depending on what I'm working on.
Is order important? YOU BET! Run SuperSpool before Keeper. Why? SuperSpool
makes a major extension to the system heap. Reversing the order will buy
you a fireworks display. I haven't seemed to have a problem fitting Ramsafe
in either before or after the two previous. But, when I use it, I usually
run Ramsafe first. It is known to be touchy about not being first.
Backup, backup, backup. How 'bout that SuperBackup. I have spent some time
with it and have oscillated several times between love and hate. If you
are an old unix hack, some realignment of thinking is necessary. What is
an incremental backup? A sorta full backup but done incrementally.
What does that mean? Well, let's start with history. Typical backups
on Unix type systems are done by taking a FULL say every week, and a daily
INCREMENTAL. What happens when the disk goes south? Reload via FULL then
apply each successive INCREMENTAL. SuperBackup don't work this way. When
you say RESTORE from INCREMENTAL, it merges the FULL and INCREMENTAL(s?)
into one big restore. (The question mark is because I have only done this
with a single FULL and INCREMENTAL so far). The amazing thing is, this is
actually what you really want. On the down side, there are complexities
introduced by HFS (generically speaking) that are less than solved. Like
if you move a file from one folder to another, does that constitute a
modification of the file? What do you get when you do the INCREMENTAL
restore? Currently, two files. The last word here seems to come from
SuperMac. A friend recently bought a DF and was on the phone with SuperMac
about the software. They told him another version of SuperBackup is
needed and so not to trust every byte of valuable data to the current one.
Oh well, where are all those floppies I put away?
A quick word on Mac+DF. Since I got the DF (a few months ago) I have been
running the Mac 24x7 at home. Very few powerdowns. So far no problems.
Even better, no squeal from the DF (unless I'm stone deaf). And I even
have a MicroSci drive.
Much to my wife's dismay, I have been on a software buying spree for the
past few months (there was still some empty space on my drive:-).
I picked up:
Comicworks: Very spiffy, I have had a LOT of fun with this one. Maybe I'll
have all the features down by next April. I keep finding more...
Reflex: I have resisted buying a database until I figured out just
what I want to put in one. Well the MacConnection price on
this one sucked me in. I guess it's time to download the
old phonelist from the mainframe...
Fontastic: Some day I'll actually get around to using it.
HP12c DA: A truly great buy. Now I just need to write a program to
create and edit 12c programs. Do-able.
Word 1.05: Sucked in again. I don't do much WP on the Mac, and if I do,
I usually use ThinkTank or MacWrite; but I couldn't pass up the
Word 3.0 upgrade offer.
Fedit+: A necessary tool in any Mac users arsenal.
Neon 2.0: Actually an upgrade. This is my toy for programming on the Mac.
The upgrade has got some nifty stuff bundled into it that I
found easy to play with right out of the box. As concerns
Neon and object programming, I think I am starting to "get it".
Lastly, lets talk Dollars & Sense. I think the program is great, after using
it for two years, but Monogram has taken an inflexible stance on their file
format. A request for it came back with the old
"private/secret/go-away-boy-you're-bothering-me response". Well, I have two
years of data now that I want to export and use in ways other than the
program will let me. There is NO way to export the data. Heck, even the
printing is forced to be bitmapped (no draft option here, no std. print dialog
even!). Well, I am forced to crack the file format. I have a fair amount
of it accomplished. Anyone interested in working on this with me? If so,
send me mail and I'll send you the details I have discovered so far. When
I(we) get done, I'll post the final analysis to the net.
Well I knew this would be a long one. If your still reading, boy have you
got perseverence! Any questions, post or send mail as appropriate and I'll
try and answer A.S.A.P.. Ciao!
--
"What it boils down to is that when Howard C. Simonson
you have a problem you want a solution." ...{hplabs,ihnp4,nsc}!amdahl!howard
<MacMemory ad/Nov. Macworld> (very profound guys, now mug for the camera...)
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