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1993-02-08
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Environment Settings
====================
FW has pre-selected cache sizes. You need not change these
settings. However, there may be times when you need to change
one of the settings.
Caches operate totally transparent to the user. Caches are
memory areas which are used to hold several parts of the FW
program. These caches may be overwritten as the user requests
other parts or features of FW. Caches speed the program as parts
of the program may be stored in memory, instead of having to be
called from the hard drive. The larger the cache, the more parts
of FW may be stored in memory, and the faster the program will
appear to operate. Caches may not be used to increase available
memory for your spreadsheet files.
IMPORTANT
=========
While caches can speed up your program, remember that Financial
Wonder also uses caches in conventional, expanded, and extended
memory to store the current data file (your spreadsheet file). If
your machine has limited memory resources we suggest leaving
sufficient memory to store your largest spreadsheet in a
expanded/extended memory. We suggest NOT increasing the
conventional cache, since this provides a larger swap area for
your spreadsheet file.
Conventional Memory
-------------------
Those without expanded or extended memory will still have
some caching available to them. The pre-set amount of 20KB
can be increased to provide additional caching.
Expanded Memory
---------------
FW can use expanded memory for caching. 80386 machines may see
a 10-20 percent speed increase. Machines with slower hard drives
and controller cards will obtain the largest benefit.
FW can run cached routines from expanded memory.
Therefore, we do not need to copy these routines into
conventional memory, which is the first 640K.
The expanded memory manager must be compatible with
EMS 3.2 or higher. FW will not use expanded memory if your
version is not compatible.
If you install an XMS driver to use extended memory for caching,
the EMS driver must be XMS compatible.
TOSHIBA USERS
-------------
As noted in other chapters, Toshiba's EMS 3.2 (provided with
Toshiba DOS 3.3) is not fully compatible. Use QEMM, 386MAX,
Memory Commander, or another driver.
Extended Memory
---------------
FW will use extended memory for caching. This includes
memory starting at the 1064K memory location, and will not
interfere with your using our 64K High Memory Area.
FW cannot run cached routines from extended memory.
However, copying routines from extended memory to either
conventional memory or expanded memory is still faster than
reading these routines from the hard drive. Expanded
memory will operate faster than extended memory, however,
extended will be faster than just using the hard drive.
Maximum benefit will be received from the use of 1.5 to 2
megabytes of combined expanded and extended memory.
FW will not use extended memory unless an XMS driver
version 2.0 or higher driver is installed. You may use the
HIMEM.SYS driver (which is an XMS driver) that comes
with FW, or a third party product that provides the equivalent
of HIMEM.SYS. In addition, VDISK.SYS may not be used,
unless you are using MS-DOS or PC-DOS 4.0 or higher.
VDISK is not compatible with XMS using MS-DOS 3.3 or
lower.
Pre-set environment
===================
FW uses caches in conventional (regular 640KB), expanded, and
extended memory.
These settings are as follows:
Conventional 20KB
Expanded 0KB available memory, not being used
by other XMS programs
(Some drivers, such as the driver
distributed by Toshiba are not fully
compatible. Expanded caching has been
set to 0KB to avoid complications. The
user may add expanded caching using the
SET command as detailed in this
chapter.)
Extended 200KB available memory, not being used
by other XMS programs
FW also has a virtual memory arena for the swapping of code,
which is similar to a cache. The size of this area cannot be
changed.
Changing the pre-set settings
=============================
These settings may be easily changed. Either add a SET
command to your autoexec.bat file, or enter the command prior
to running FW.
Conventional Memory
SET RTVMCONV=<maximum allocated>
Expanded Memory
SET RTVMEXP=<maximum allocated>
Extended Memory
SET RTVMEXT=<maximum allocated>
The maximum allocated amount may be in the form of kilobyes
(KB), or as a percentage of available memory.
Example #1:
-----------
This will increase conventional memory caches from 20KB to
50KB:
SET RTVMCONV=50
This will speed up the program's operation, however it will
also reduce the memory space available to run FW.
Example #2:
-----------
To allow up to 75 percent of available expanded memory to be
used for caching, instead of 100 percent, type:
SET RTVMEXP=75<percent symbol>
NOTE:
-----
Our on-line text cannot reproduce the percent symbol,
instead of "<percent symbol>" press SHIFT and the number 5
on your keyboard.
75 percent will be the maximum allocated. If less is
needed, less will be used. As FW uses only conventional
memory to store files, increasing expanded or extended memory
will not reduce the space needed for files.
Since FW can run cached routines from expanded memory,
it may be more beneficial to use available expanded memory,
instead of valuable conventional memory space.
If you must increase conventional memory space, and you
have available expanded memory, you might try eliminating
the conventional cache by typing "SET RTVMCONV=0k".
The speed difference may not be significant.
FW uses the .RTLINK+ virtual memory linker from Pocket Soft,
Inc. If you have other programs produced with this virtual
memory linker, then any environment changes made with the SET
command will also apply to those other programs. The effect of
the SET command is temporary. These changes will be removed
is you reboot your system. For this reason, permanent changes
should be made in your autoexec.bat file.