Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!apple!usc!jarthur!wilkins
From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac IIci problems
Keywords: more heap, less viruses, virgin system, test inits
Message-ID: <9104@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 13 Oct 90 23:13:11 GMT
References: <1990Oct13.002237.15313@midway.uchicago.edu> <7409@spt.entity.com> <5770@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Lines: 30

In article <5770@mace.cc.purdue.edu> nvi@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Charles C. Allen) writes:
>> Chances are that your heap is much too small.  Under multi-finder,
>> choose ABOUT THE FINDER, and look at the System bar graph.  About 25%
>> of the bar should be white (on the right side).
>
>OK, I give.  I keep hearing this advice, but I never hear any *good*
>explanations for it, just folklore.  I would appreciate an
>explanation, from someone who *knows* how MultiFinder works, of why
>the System heap allocation could cause problems like this.


  The reason you've never had any trouble is that you're running MultiFinder.

  The System Heap never changes size under the ordinary single Finder, and
if you find less that 25% free then you're in trouble.

  However, in MultiFinder, the System Heap changes size dynamically, and
there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO to increase the free space in the system heap
short of some difficult hack which wouldn't serve any function anyway.

  If you're running Finder, you need something to solve the problem.  If
you're running under MultiFinder and suffer from crashes then something else
is your problem.

-- Mark Wilkins
-- 
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