The Atari Compendium/The Atari Compendium (Toad Computers) (1994).iso/files/prgtools/langs/mjc2.arc/MJCDOC.ARC/ETERNAL2.DOC

Text File | 1988-03-31 | 9.9 KB | 214 lines

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ETERNAL2 RAM disk documentation (short version)
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This is a reset-proof RAM disk which can be configured to use any
drive identifier or size.  It can also be resized or removed.

To use this RAM disk, put ETERNAL2.PRG in your floppy disk AUTO folder.
Be sure it is the first file you put in AUTO.  You can create a RAMDISK.DAT
file (see next paragraph) and place it in AUTO as well.  Reboot, then
Install the correct desktop icon and Save Desktop (from the menu).


By default, the drive identifier is H and the size is 100 Kbytes.  However,
if the file \AUTO\RAMDISK.DAT exists, the RAM disk spec will be read from
it instead (this should be a 4-byte ASCII file).  Finally, though, you can
override both of the above by holding down the Alt key while booting, in
which case you will be prompted to enter the RAM disk spec from the keyboard
(or hold down Caps Lock to prevent the RAM disk from being created at all).


The RAM disk spec must be specified as:
Yxxx
where Y is a drive identifier (D through P)
and xxx is the size in kilobytes

for instance
D480 means drive D: and size 480k,
G064 means drive G: and size 64k.

The special value Q for the drive identifier can be used; this causes the
RAM disk to not be created at all.

The configuration must be given in this form (four ASCII characters).
It can either be stored in the file \AUTO\RAMDISK.DAT, or can be typed
from the keyboard if Alt was held down while booting.

NOTE: the RAMDISK.DAT file can be created with any text editor, or you can
      use the program RAMCONF.TOS to create it.  Do NOT use the program
      CONFGRAM.TOS that was included with an earlier version of this RAM disk,
      as it creates a binary (not ASCII) RAMDISK.DAT file (and obviously, do
      not use any RAMDISK.DAT file created by this program).


"Reset-proof" means that you can put your original boot disk into the
floppy disk drive and press the reset button, and after the reboot the files
on the RAM disk will still be there.  This is a very handy feature if your
computer crashes accidentally, since you can reboot without losing your
RAM disk files.

NOTE: it is best to reboot with the original boot disk in the disk drive to
      restore the RAM disk.  If you reboot with another boot disk, results
      may be unpredictable.

The RAM disk can be removed by pressing the reset button and holding down
"Caps Lock", or resized by pressing reset and holding down "Alt".
   NOTE HOWEVER  that doing so erases all the files on the RAM disk.
That is, if you want to make use of the "reset-proof" feature, keep your
fingers off the keyboard while rebooting.


This is a free program.  The original reset-proof RAM disk program was
written by John Harris; however the current version contains improvements
and modifications by many others.  This documetation file was written
by Gordan Palameta based on docs by John Franco.

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Documentation (long version)
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--------
What is a RAM disk
--------

If you have never used a RAM disk before, it is well worth taking
the trouble to learn about them and use them.  A RAM disk makes
part of the computer's memory look like a disk.  You can copy files
to or from RAM disk, and run programs from it.

A RAM disk acts just like a floppy disk or hard disk in many ways, but because
it "lives" in the computer's memory, reading or writing to it is very fast
and involves no wear and tear on physical disk drives.  It is useful for
any application that creates temporary files (for instance, compilers).

If you have a single-floppy system and no hard disk, copying files from
one floppy disk to another involves a lot of disk switching.  A RAM disk
helps out a lot here, since you can copy a file from floppy to RAM
disk, then just copy back from RAM disk onto another floppy.

The disadvantage of RAM disks over real disk drives is that the storage is
only temporary.  When you turn off your computer, the contents of memory are
lost.  Since files on a RAM disk are obviously vulnerable to accidental
power failures, they must be backed up to floppy or hard disk to save them
permanently.

--------
Setting up the RAM disk
--------

Setting up the RAM disk requires a minor effort.  Read this section to
find out what is involved.  However, the set-up only has to be done once.

First decide what size you want the RAM disk to be.  If you have a 1040 ST,
480 k might be a good size; if you have a 520 ST, you might try 120 k.  You
can configure the size differently, but remember that the RAM disk lives in
memory, so if you make the RAM disk too big, there will not be enough memory
left for the rest of your programs to run.

Second, decide which drive identifier you want the RAM disk to use.  This is
a single capital letter: for instance, the drive identifier for your main
floppy disk is "A", and if you have a second floppy disk, it's "B".  So for
the RAM disk, you can choose any letter between D and P (DON'T use C, it's
reserved).  If you don't have a hard disk, "D" is a good choice.  If you do
have a hard disk, it probably already uses "D", "E", and several other letters
for its partitions, so pick a drive identifier for the RAM disk that doesn't
conflict with the ones already used by the hard disk partitions.

Then run the program RAMCONF.TOS.  It will ask you to answer the two
questions mentioned above, namely what size RAM disk do you want and what
drive identifier do you want.  It will create a file called RAMDISK.DAT
to store this data.

Then take your boot disk (the disk you stick in your disk drive when you
boot your computer).  Make a new folder on it called "AUTO" (use the
New Folder... selection of the File menu).  NOTE: if you already have an
AUTO folder with files in it, there is a slight extra complication, as
will be explained shortly.

Copy ETERNAL2.PRG into AUTO.  Also copy the file RAMDISK.DAT into AUTO.

The AUTO folder is a special folder -- all the programs in it are executed
when you boot your computer.  Note they get executed in the order that they
were copied into the AUTO folder, so if you have more than one program in
your AUTO folder and the order in which they are executed matters, you should
copy all the programs out of AUTO and temporarily save them somewhere else,
then delete all the files in AUTO, and finally copy them all back one by one,
in the order you want them to get executed.

NOTE: the RAM disk program ETERNAL2.PRG should be executed as the first
      AUTO program, so if you already had an AUTO folder on your boot disk,
      you must follow the procedure mentioned above to make sure of this.

One important note about AUTO folders:  programs that use GEM will not
work properly in an AUTO folder (because GEM is not yet initialized when
the AUTO folder is executed).  So do not put any GEM programs in AUTO --
you will crash your computer.  (GEM programs, generally speaking, are
ones that use the mouse, menus, etc.).

To use the RAM disk, you must put your boot disk (with ETERNAL2.PRG and
RAMDISK.DAT in the AUTO folder) in the disk drive and reboot your computer
(press the reset switch at the back of the computer).  After rebooting, the
RAM disk has been created, but you don't see it yet -- you have to create
a disk icon for it.  Do the following:

Click (once) on the "A" floppy disk icon -- it will turn dark.

Select the "Install Disk Drive..." option from the Options menu.

A box display will appear, with two lines in it:

   The first line will say "A" -- use the Backspace key to erase
   the A, and then type in whatever letter you selected as the
   drive identifier for the RAM disk (make sure you pick the same
   letter you picked when you ran RAMCONF.TOS  and type it in
   as a capital (not lowercase) letter).

   The second line says "FLOPPY DISK".  Erase it with the Backspace
   key, then type in whatever you like (it really doesn't matter -- you
   can type "RAM DISK", or if you chose the size to be 400k you might want
   to type in "400 k" as a reminder).

Click on the "Install" button in the box display.

A new icon should appear on your desktop.  It looks just like the
"A" FLOPPY DISK icon, but the labels will be whatever you chose in
the steps above.  This is your RAM disk icon.

If you like you can double click on the RAM disk icon, and a window
will open up.  Just like your floppy disk can have one or more windows
associated with it, so can your RAM disk.

Important last step:  select the "Save Desktop" option of the Options
menu.  This will create a file called DESKTOP.INF (or modify it if it
already exists) on your boot disk.  This ensures that the RAM disk icon
you've just created will be created automatically every time you boot
with your boot disk.

The DESKTOP.INF file actually stores all kinds of information about
the desktop, including the positions and sizes of windows and the positions
of icons.  Anytime you rearrange the appearance of the desktop, you can
save the new arrangement by putting your boot disk in the disk drive
and using "Save Desktop".

--------
Using the RAM disk
--------

You only have to do the above procedure once.  After this, every time you
turn on your computer with your boot disk in the disk drive, the RAM disk
is created automatically for you.

If your computer crashes at any time, the files on this RAM disk are not
lost (if you turn the computer off, though, they are).  To recover from a
crash, place your original boot disk in the floppy disk drive and press the
reset button of your computer.


If for any reason you wish to use a different size RAM disk, you can run
RAMCONF.TOS again to create a new RAMDISK.DAT file to put in your AUTO
folder.  Or you can hold down the Alternate key while booting your computer --
this causes the information in the RAMDISK.DAT file to be ignored, and lets
you enter the size you want from the keyboard (read the first part of this
documentation to find out how to use this feature).