[comp.os.msdos.misc] DOS file handles & mouse drivers

ff76@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (Jhinuk Chowdhury) (12/06/90)

Sometime ago, I had learnt that at the time of loading TSRs, if the 
screen output is suppressed by directing it to the NUL device, it
will tie up file handles.  Well, I don't direct screen outputs to the 
NUL anymore.  My file handles are safe - or so I thought!

For several programs, I am required to load a mouse driver into RAM
(XtreePro Gold, PCWrite, and others).  Since the mouse driver occupies
a significant amount of RAM, what I do is to use MARK (the memory marking
utility) before loading the mouse driver, then I load the mouse driver,
and finally the application program that I need to run.  All this from 
within a batch file.  The last line of the batch file has a RELEASE 
that unloads everything that was loaded into RAM after MARK.  This, I
thought was an adequate strategy.

The problem is every time I run the batch file, one file handle gets tied
up.  The mouse driver is loaded by MOUSE.COM which requires a "menu" file
depending upon the application.  It is usually loaded like this:
C:\UTL\MOUSE C:\MENUS\XTREE.MNU

If I run Xtree five separate times, five file handles are tied up - one
corresponding to every time the MOUSE command was executed.  All the 
file handles are associated with XTREE.MNU.

As you can see, this is absolutely unbearable!  DOS gurus and other folks,
can you help, please?

[I use a Compuadd 286/12 with 640K RAM, and a wee bit of extended memory.]

If it is convenient for you please respond to FF76@UNTVM1.BITNET, and if
I have workable responses, I will summarize.

Thanks in advance.     - Jhinuk.