marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (05/02/90)
craig@unify.uucp (Craig Isaacs) writes: >In article <1990Apr30.181344.1395@seri.gov> marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: >>MJB@cup.portal.com (Martin J Brown-Jr) writes: >> >>>Anybody seen a text editor for Windows386 (pd, shareware, or inexpensive)? >>>Notepad just doesn't cut it (I'm tired of getting those "not valid notepad >>>file" notices). >> >>What really ticks me off is that I can't even edit my WIN.INI file with it. >>I use soft fonts for my LaserJet II and they make the INI file too big to >>be edited by it. I think it's limited to 32K. >> >Am I missing something here? Isn't MS Write given away with Windows? >Although Write is certainly not a fancy wp program, it does >qualify as a text editor (and can edit win.ini). Well, yes. You can edit files with a word processor. I even own WinWord. I just PREFER to use an editor for editing text files. Word processors are generally MUCH slower than editors. They take longer to load, open files, etc. When I want to make a quick change to a file, I don't want to wait a half minute or so to do it. I'm used to fast response, and when I don't get it, I start pissing and moaning. Once you become addicted to speed, it's very hard to accept slow response. It breaks your rhythm and productivity plummets. I consider Notepad to be an embarrassment. IMHO, Windows is a GREAT idea - it just isn't executed very well. Yet. Here's hoping for 3.0! BTW, Martin tells me one can add a line to WIN.INI to increase Notepad's size. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm curious as to why MS didn't mention it to me when I was complaining about it on the phone. Martin says to try: [notepad] size=xxx To quote the manual on Notepad file size: "When a file has less than 10 percent free space, you should con- sider splitting the file and working on it as two different files." What incredibly useless advice! When I look up WIN.INI in the Notepad index (hoping for advice on increasing Notepad's max file size), it tells me to look at page 1. To quote page 1: "Microsoft Windows Notepad is a text editor you can use to create, modify, and display text files. Although Notepad is pri- marily a place to jot down notes or short memos, you can also use Notepad to create and edit batch files and to edit your WIN.INI file." OK. So now I try the index for the Windows User's Guide, I see under Notepad that they mention WIN.INI. Let's see if that tells us how to increase the default size. I turn to page 199 and there the title says "Customizing Your WIN.INI File." Sounds promising! Unfortunately, where Notepad is mentioned is in the following line: "You can make changes directly to your WIN.INI file by using Notepad." Nothing about customizing Notepad - just using it to modify WIN.INI. Why does MS have so many undocumented features in Windows? I consider that slightly unethical. So since MS doesn't intend for people to use Notepad as a general purpose text editor ("primarily a place to jot down notes and short memos" - for that I prefer yellow sticky pads), what are our options? Will WIN 3.0 have an enhanced Notepad? Does someone market a good Windows text editor? I'm willing to spend money for quality software. Will May 21 ever come? -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Engineer VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (05/03/90)
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: >BTW, Martin tells me one can add a line to WIN.INI to increase Notepad's >size. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm curious as to why MS >didn't mention it to me when I was complaining about it on the phone. >Martin says to try: >[notepad] >size=xxx I just tried this with WIN386 v 2.11. My WIN.INI file is 26K. Notepad can not edit it without the above statements. So I tried [notepad] size=64 for 64K. It didn't work either. I don't know if I'm doing this right. It isn't documented anywhere I can find it. Martin did say that he hadn't tried it for a long time. Maybe it worked with an earlier release. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait for 3.0 to come out. I hope the protected mode stuff will allow larger files. If it doesn't, I'll be in the market for something... -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Engineer VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future
MJB@cup.portal.com (Martin J Brown-Jr) (05/03/90)
I wrote a msg to Marshall, saying that at sometime in the past I had been
able to change Notepad's maximum allowable file size by changing the
win.ini file like so:
[notepad]
size=xxx where xxx is the max kbyte size.
Unfortunately, I wrote Marshall before I tested it (tho I warned that it
might not be the correct method), and even more unfortunately, he passed
it to the net before he tested it.
*** the above "solution" DOES NOT WORK ***
Apologies to all (including you, Marshall) who have wasted time trying this.
As I informed Marshall in my msg to him, I was able to change this notepad
parameter, at some point in the past, I just can't remember how I did it.
I'm working on it.
As for WRITE, it's 200k in size!! seesh.
- MJB -
USENET: mjb@cup.portal.comMJB@cup.portal.com (Martin J Brown-Jr) (05/03/90)
I see, now, that Marshall did warn you off of my "solution".
Apologies all around.
- MJB -
USENET: mjb@cup.portal.commms00786@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (05/03/90)
I seem to remember from Petzold's book that notepad is a small app (only about 21K) which mainly creates an edit window. These windows I believe keep all their data in the local heap, which is limited (to 32K?). I don't think it is possible to increase this size via win.ini. Perhaps it is possible to decrease the max possible size? Milan .,