lippin@twinkies.berkeley.edu (The Apathist) (06/12/90)
A recent discussion here pointed up the fact that the RAM cache setting in the control panel is a particularly confusing item. The clock, volume, and maybe even the desktop pattern controls are easily understood, but the RAM cache is, by its technical nature, doomed to be a whazzat-thing. I have a difficult time choosing a setting myself; I wouldn't want to try talking my grandmother through it. It occurs to me that the problem is that it's an under-the-hood item, the sort of thing the Macintosh hides from us so well. The computer should be taking care of it all by itself. (Yes, I prefer an automatic transmission, too.) Since the best setting varies with how the mac is used, it'll have to be reasonably smart about it. The most effective method I can think of is to allocate the cache out of the same areas as multifinder memory. Then when an application is launched, or when one asks for temporary memory, the space can be released to it instead. If the cache becomes a burden at very large sizes, an upper bound can be set on its size. Of course, care must be taken to only allocate the cache in physical memory. (Or maybe not, if it's mirroring a device slower than the swap device.) That way it works well, and there are no controls so embarrassing controls to be hidden behind a "Show Details" button. After all, it is the computer for the rest of them. --Tom Lippincott lippin@math.berkeley.edu "Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent." --Ludwig Wittgenstein