Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!aero-c!avcomp
From: avcomp@aero.org (Allen V. Compito)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Hitting an open file limit
Summary: finder says too many files open
Keywords: file limit, finder, system
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.230837.1068@aero.org>
Date: 2 Jun 91 23:08:37 GMT
Sender: news@aero.org
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Lines: 32


Got a big problem,

I'm having problems running into some sort of system or finder
file handle limit.  Frequently, when I've got several
applications open and try to open another application
I get a dialog box telling me that xxxx can't open it's
files because I have too many files open.  Another related
problem is when I try to or do background printing with
PrintMonitor.  I get a PrintMonitor error telling me that
"unknown from unknown cannot be printed because it's damaged".
If I close up a file or two or quit an application, the
problem goes away and I can print the document.
Usually, when this happens I have 4-6 files open 
directly (don't know how many the applications open for 
themselves).

I've got plenty of RAM free (I looked with "about finder") and 
I've used Heapfixer to up my system Heap and I've allocated 400 K 
to finder.  I've set my open window limit to 40 windows (yeah a lot, 
but I REALLY multi-task).  I've looked far and wide to find out where 
this file limit is set, with no luck.  Is it in the finder or the 
system file ?  I've used ResEdit to look at them, but I can't find 
anything that seems to set the limit.  I'm having the problem mostly 
when using Nisus 3.05 (2.2 Mb allocated), Expressionist 2.07 (512K 
allocated), and Hypercard(1.2 Mb) allocated.
  
My system and finder take up 2 Mb.  I've got 8 Mb in my SE/30 
running system 6.0.3 and finder 6.1.  Yeah I know, sys 7.0, 
sys 7.0.  I already got my copy, but I'm turning in the  first 
draft of my dissertation in a week --- if It ain't broke ...
DON'T BREAK IT :-).