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1 min-mem Version 2.0 User's Guide Copyright This min-mem documentation and the software are copyrighted with all rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, neither the documentation nor the software may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Biologic, except in the manner described in this manual. The unregistered version of min-mem and accompanying documentation may be freely copied and distributed. Copyright (C) Biologic 1989, 1990. All rights reserved. First edition printed 1989. Printed in the United States. Software License Notice Your license agreement with Biologic, which is included with the product, specifies the permitted and prohibited uses of the product. Any unauthorized duplication or use of min-mem in whole or in part, in print, or in any other storage and retrieval system is forbidden. Licenses and Trademarks PC Tools is a registered trademark of Central Point Software, Inc. Metro is a registered trademark of Lotus Corporation. PC-DOS is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. SideKick is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc. Homebase is a registered trademark of Brown Bag Software Inc. min-mem is a registered trademark of Biologic. Represented in the U.K. By Biologic The Thompson Partnership 7950 Blue Gray Ciricle 10, Church Croft, Manassas, VA 22110-2829 Bramshall, USA UTTOXETER, 703-368-2949 Staffs. ST14 5DE 0889 564601 ^L 3 Contents License Agreement and Disclaimer of Warranty 5 Introduction 6 Condensed Instructions 8 Installation 9 Using min-mem 11 Command Reference 12 Error Messages 15 Notes 16 Site License 17 Your Turn 18^L 4 License Agreement and Disclaimer of Warranty License agreement Disclaimer of warranty License agreement The terms of this license agreement apply to you and to any subsequent licensee of this min-mem software. Biologic retains the ownership of this copy of min-mem software. This copy is licensed to you for use under the following conditions. You may use the min-mem software on any compatible computer, provided the min-mem software is used on only one computer and by one user at a time. You may not provide use of the software in a computer service business, network, timesharing, multiple CPU or multiple user arrangement to users who are not individually licensed by Biologic, except that you may designate any employee to use such products on a one employee per license basis. You may not disassemble or decompile the min-mem software. Disclaimer of warranty Biologic excludes any and all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Biologic does not make any warranty of representation, either express or implied, with respect to this software program, its quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. Biologic shall not have any liability for special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of or resulting from the use of this program. ^L 6 Introduction Description Overview Highlights Requirements Contents of the min-mem disk Description min-mem frees up memory for large programs by swapping memory resident programs (TSRs) to your disk--giving you instant access to up to 24 popup programs such as SideKick, PC Tools, and Lotus Metro while using only 15K of memory. Overview A memory resident program, as its name implies, is installed in memory and remains there until your PC is turned off or rebooted. Popup programs, such as SideKick, are memory resident and can be "popped up" instantly and used while running any other program. A disadvantage of installing a popup program is that it must occupy a significant portion of conventional memory that becomes unavailable to other applications. min-mem provides a solution to this problem by individually loading each of your popup programs and writing a memory image of the popup to your disk. The memory used by the popup is then released back to the operating system. The min-mem program itself remains resident and uses 15K of memory. min-mem acts like any other popup program. When you press the min-mem key combination, min-mem displays a list of your popups and allows you to select one by moving the highlight bar and pressing Enter or by pressing a single key. A section of your memory is saved to disk, and the selected popup is loaded in its place. Pressing the popup's hotkey will activate the program as usual. When you exit the popup and min-mem, the section of memory that was saved to your disk is restored, and you'll return to your original program. Highlights min-mem can be popped up at any time, within any application, to load and run a TSR program. All of your TSRs are displayed in a menu and can be selected with a highlight bar or a single keystroke. Does not required setting aside memory for the largest TSR like similar programs. Compatible with all TSRs. ^L Uses only 15K of memory. Frees all memory used by TSRs. Eliminates conflicts between TSRs and between applications and TSRs. Enables any TSR to pop up within a graphics program. Requirements IBM Personal Computer Disk Operating System (PC-DOS) or Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) version 2.0 or greater. Fixed disk or network disk. Disk free space must be equal to or greater than the amount of total memory used by your popup programs. Contents of the min-mem disk The following files are included in the root directory of the distribution disk. min-mem.exe read.me There may also be a \freeware directory which contains unregistered versions of our other software products. Condensed Instructions The following instructions briefly describe the installation and use of min-mem. If you are a knowledgeable computer user, you should be able to get min-mem working by following these steps. More detailed information can be found in the sections, "Installation", "Using min-mem", and "Command Reference". 1. Copy the file, min-mem.exe, to the directory that has your utility programs. 2. Create a text file which lists your popup programs and the parameters needed to load them. Be sure to include a path for each TSR and its file name extension. For example, the following would load SideKick and PC Tools. \sk\sk.com \pctools\pcshell.exe /r 3. Run the min-mem program and use the /f parameter to specify the text file which lists your TSRs. For example, if the file you created in step 2 is called min-mem.txt, enter the command1 min-mem /fmin-mem.txt 4. To use min-mem, press the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously and follow the directions on the screen. ____________________ 1The file name specified with the /f parameter can include a path.^L 9 Installation Copying min-mem Configuring min-mem Copying min-mem The file, min-mem.exe, should be copied to the directory on your hard disk you use for utility programs. You should have a command in your autoexec.bat file which includes this directory in your path so that your utility programs, including min-mem, can be executed from any directory on your hard drive.2 The following installation procedure assumes you have a directory named \util in the root directory of drive C. 1. Insert the distribution disk in drive A. 2. Type [copy a:min-mem.exe c:\util] (don't type the brackets). Configuring min-mem Before running the min-mem program, you must create a file which lists the popup programs you want min- mem to load. The file should be a standard DOS text file and can be created using the DOS edlin program or any other editor or word processor. You can also create the file by copying from the console device as shown in the example below. Each line in the file should list the name of a TSR, including its path and file name extension, and the parameters, if any, you normally use to load the TSR. The following procedure will create a file, named min-mem.txt, that will load Sidekick and PC Tools.3 1. Type [copy con \util\min-mem.txt] and press Enter (don't type the brackets). 2. Type [\sk\sk.com] and press Enter. 3. Type [\pctools\pcshell.exe /r] and press Enter. 4. Press the F6 function key and Enter. Some TSRs, such as Homebase (Brown Bag Software), consist of a group of programs that are loaded separately. To instruct min- mem to load several files together in memory, enclosed them with braces in the file specified by the /f parameter. For example, ____________________ 2Read about the path command in your DOS manual. 3This examples assumes ctr-alt.exe is in the directory \util, SideKick is in the directory \sk, and PC Tools is in the directory \pctools. If this is not the case on your system, substitute the correct directory names in this example. 10 the following lines would load SideKick and Homebase.4 { \homebase\hbkernel.com k=128 8 @ c12 \homebase\hbasync.com \homebase\hbvsi.com 35k \homebase\hb.exe z -k } \sk\sk.com Normally, the min-mem menu will list the filename of each TSR it has loaded. If you would like min-mem to list another name for a TSR, indicate this by adding a line with the format /name newname where newname is the name of up to 12 characters to be displayed on the min-mem menu. This line and the line (or lines) which load the TSR should be enclosed by braces. The following example would load SideKick and display "sidekick" on the menu. { \sk\sk.com /name sidekick } ^L ____________________ 4In order to install Homebase correctly, make "\homebase" the current directory before executing the min-mem command. 11 Using min-mem The min-mem command Popping up min-mem The min-mem command After you've created the file that lists your TSRs you can execute the min-mem command. Use the /f parameter to specify the name of the file which lists your TSRs as shown in the example below. min-mem /f\util\min-mem.txt If, after executing this command, the message Bad command or file name is displayed, DOS was unable to find min-mem.exe. The directory which contains min-mem.exe must be in DOS PATH. If you received the message min-mem : error C0006: can't open program name list then min-mem was unable to find the file you entered on the min- mem command line. Be sure the file name you entered includes the correct file name extension and path. In other words, for the example above the file, min-mem.txt, must be in the directory \util. Popping up min-mem Press the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously to pop up min-mem.5 min-mem will display the names of your TSRs and allow you to select one by either moving a highlight bar and pressing Enter or pressing the letter next its name. After min- mem loads the selected TSR into memory, it can be activated by pressing its hotkey, and will work just as if it had been resident in memory. When you exit the TSR, you can press Esc to return to the min-mem menu, where you can select another TSR or press Esc to exit. 5Use the Ctrl key on the left if your keyboard has two Ctrl keys. ^L 12 Command Reference Format Parameters Format The format of the min-mem command is min-mem [parameters] where [parameters] specifies the min-mem parameters described in the following section. Parameters The following parameters can appear in the min-mem command. The /f parameter, as described in the section "Using min-mem", specifies the TSRs to be loaded and is required. The other parameters are provide to increase flexibility only and are not required. It is not necessary that you know how to use them. /? Display help. /dd:path Drive/path for paging file. This parameter specifies the location of the paging file, min-mem0.dat, that min-mem uses to store a memory image of your TSRs. If you omit this parameter, the paging file is placed in the root directory of the default drive. For example, this parameter places the paging file in the root directory of drive D, [/dd:]. If you need to put the file in a directory other than the root, you can specify a path also. For example, [/dd:\private\]. /fname Program name list. This parameter specifies the name of the text file which lists the TSRs min-mem should load. Each TSR should be listed on a separate line. Include a path and a file name extension. Read the sections "Installation" and "Using min-mem" for more information on the /f parameter. 13 ^L /hscancode Alternate hotkey. Use this parameter to change the hotkey that pops up min-mem. scancode specifies the scan code of the key, in combination with the Alt key, that will pop up min-mem. For example, the Alt-Left Shift hotkey would be specified by [/h42]. Scan codes for the IBM PC keyboard can be obtained in any hardware reference manual; a few are listed below. Key Scan Code Left Shift 42 Right Shift 54 Space 57 Esc 1 /q Quick install. This causes min-mem to bypass its normal initialization procedure of loading each TSR and writing a memory image of it to disk, by using an image file that was created previously. The image file, min-mem0.dat, must be located in the root directory of the default drive6 and must have been created by a previous invocation of the min-mem command that did not include the /q parameter. It is also necessary that, when using /q, min-mem be loaded in exactly the same place in memory as when /q was not used. This option is most useful when min-mem is executed by autoexec.bat. This ensures that it will be consistently placed in the same memory location unless your config.sys or autoexec.bat files are altered. To do this successfully, add the min-mem command, without the /q parameter, to your autoexec.bat file and reboot. After min-mem has been installed and the image file created, add the /q parameter to the min-mem command line in your autoexec.bat file and reboot again. /r Restore screen after loading TSR. After loading a TSR, instead of displaying the message "Program loaded", min-mem will restore the screen as it appeared before min-mem was popped up. This is useful when running a TSR, such as an envelope printing program, that reads characters from the screen. Remember to press the hotkey after loading the TSR and to press Esc after exiting the TSR to return to the min- mem menu. ____________________ 6Unless another drive and/or directory is specified with the /d parameter. 14 /v Don't change video mode. This parameter causes min-mem to never change the video mode of the display. Normally, when popping up in a graphics screen, min-mem changes the display to text mode and then restores the original graphics mode when exiting. Although unlikely, if min-mem is incompatible with a program that uses a graphics mode, you can avoid problems by using this parameter. Although the min-mem menu or messages will not be displayed, min-mem will work the same as usual--you just have to remember which letter loads a particular TSR and to press Esc twice after exiting the TSR. ^L: 15 Error Messages already installed min-mem is already installed. can't install The min-mem program is not compatible with your computer system. can't open program name list The file name specified with the /f parameter does not exist. If you specified a path, verify that the file is in that directory. If you did not specify a path, the file must be in the current directory. min-mem0.dat file not found The image file, min-mem0.dat, does not exist in the root directory of the default drive or in the drive and/or directory you specified with the /d parameter. invalid parameter At least one of the parameters on the command line is invalid. Read the section, "Command Reference". no programs were loaded min-mem was unable to load any of the programs specified in the program name list or none of them are TSRs. not enough disk space There is not enough disk space to save a memory image of each TSR. You must increase the free disk space on your disk or reduce the number of TSRs loaded by min-mem. program did not stay resident The program loaded by min-mem did not stay resident in memory and cannot be reloaded from the min- mem menu. If the program is a TSR, then you may have omitted a parameter which causes the program to stay resident. For example, PC Tools requires the /r parameter to be installed as a TSR. Read the section "Installation". program not found At least one of the programs listed in the file specified by the /f parameter was not found. Be sure that the path you specified for each program is correct and that each file has a file name extension. Read the sections "Installation", "Using min-mem", and "Command Reference" for more information on the /f parameter. ^L 16 Notes When min-mem is popped up on a screen in graphics mode, garbage characters may be displayed around the min-mem window. This is normal. The original graphics screen will be restored when you exit min-mem. 17 Site License min-mem can be licensed on a per location basis which allows a company to use it on a network or use multiple copies of min-mem without purchasing them individually. Pricing is dependent on the number of copies and is very reasonable. Please contact Biologic for further information. Your Turn We value you opinions. Please let us know what you like and dislike about the min-mem program and documentation. We're dedicated to developing the most innovative and useful software available--and selling it at reasonable prices. Your support helps make this possible. Please send all comments and suggestions to either Biologic The Thompson Partnership P.O. Box 1267 10, Church Croft, Manassas, VA 22110 Bramshall, USA UTTOXETER, Staffs ST14 5DE THANK YOU.