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From: aaron@jessica.stanford.edu (Aaron Wallace)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: How to get extended mem back after a windows session?
Keywords: extendedmemory,  himem.sys
Message-ID: <1990Oct26.225054.28224@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 26 Oct 90 22:50:54 GMT
References: <90297.155820MUHRTH@DB0TUI11.BITNET> <1990Oct26.195130.17719@cs.uoregon.edu> <1990Oct26.214912.19652@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: Aaron Wallace
Organization: Academic Information Resources
Lines: 32

In article <1990Oct26.214912.19652@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:

[ Question as to why have Himem/XMS deleted ]

>Very simple: Microsoft did it that way to pimp out users of other companies
>software. Himem.sys makes it impossible to use any software using
>extended memory that was written earlier than it was. This means that
>Microsoft is saying "Hah Hah!! You thought it was safe to buy other
>companies products? Gotcha!!! We are Microsoft - you use our 
>products, then WE will prevent you from running other companies
>products! If you buy ONLY ours...... (*)"

Excuse me, but anyone can write an XMS-compliant program.  And should.  The
alternatives are very ugly and would be impossible to implement in DOS-
compatible "environments" such as OS/2 and Windows DOS boxes.  The 
alternatives?  Back-patch INT 15h to reflect how much memory you're claiming--
this works well when programs are run/quit in a LIFO manner, but otherwise
is silly.  Look for VDISK signs?  Same problem.  XMS allows for flexible
memory management and should have been done years ago.  It's a long-overdue
solution to how to use that &#$*#$ extended memory, not a sinister plot to
do in older programs.

>Actually, there are ways to fake out himem.sys but they are
>rather complicated to describe. Basically, you lose unless your 
>are a sneaky programmer.

Maybe Microsoft could have written a program that tells HIMEM to revert to the
braindead non-memory-management system, but that would only encourage the
writing of more braindead programs or create havoc for SmartDrive once XMS
disappears...

Aaron Wallace