Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce!trlluna!rhea!aduncan
From: aduncan@rhea.trl.oz (Allan Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Why not use RAD:? (Re:  ASDG VD0: DOES NOT WORK!)
Message-ID: <2381@trlluna.trl.oz>
Date: 22 Oct 90 23:32:00 GMT
References: <1990Oct22.033330.22005@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Sender: news@trlluna.trl.oz
Lines: 34

From article <1990Oct22.033330.22005@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, by xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan):
> I'm really curious at all this VD0: and VK0: traffic. I've been using
> the RAD: that Commodore supplies for eighteen months or so with no
> problems whatever, and except for a couple of times when I was running
> some really braindead demo code, that trashed it thoroughly, it's never
> failed to recover for me. I use a 6.5 meg RAD: every day, sloshing files
> around like crazy while multitasking for all I'm worth.
> 
> Why are people still searching for a recoverable ram disk? "It's in
> there!" If there's something horribly wrong with RAD:, I'm not sure I
> want to know at this late date. Is my computer about to develop dry rot
> or something?
> ;-)

As one who continues to use VD0:, I will explain.

RAD: requires you to set up a _fixed_ size disk equivalent in advance of
using it.  VD0:, like RAM:, is dynamic in size, with you only needing to
set the maximum size in advance.  Since it is dynamic, it is  up to me
to trade memory for programs against recoverable storage as I go along.
Less of a problem on the 2000 at work with its 1+2M of memory, but quite
important for the 1/2M 1000 at home.  I have looked at RAD:, and found
that its only virtue over VD0: is the ability to use FFS, but now most
of the DOS commands can be made resident, even that is less significant.

As a side issue, when using the Kickfile version of 2.0, RAD: is not
recoverable, but VD0: is (well, the original one from Perry).  My
startup allows me to chooes 1.3 or 2.0, and I can keep stuff in memory
between boots.

Allan Duncan	ACSnet	a.duncan@trl.oz
(03) 541 6708	ARPA	a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
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Telecom Research Labs, PO Box 249, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.