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From: ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaDOS question
Message-ID: <464@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Mon, 3-Aug-87 15:51:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocky.464
Posted: Mon Aug  3 15:51:45 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Aug-87 04:25:58 EDT
References: <18542@cca.CCA.COM>
Reply-To: ali@rocky.UUCP (Ali Ozer)
Distribution: na
Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department
Lines: 28

In article <18542@cca.CCA.COM> jack@cca.CCA.COM (Jack Orenstein) writes:
>I have a question about how AmigaDOS 1.2 locates commands. I copied a bunch of
>commands to ram:c and assigned c: to ram:c. Sometimes, a command will
>check the disk, and if workbench is not present, ask me to supply it.
>If I repeat the command though, the floppy is not consulted. Why is the disk
>being checked and how can I avoid it?

Some commands require the use of various disk-based resources, such
as disk based fonts (Topaz 8 and Topaz 9 are the only fonts in ROM),
libraries, device handlers, etc... The system has a nice caching scheme
by which it will cache fonts, libraries, etc, so that when you run the
command again it will not require the disk access. (Unless you are very
short on memory, in which case the system might flush it out in the mean
time.)

I imagine in the case of commands in the C: directory, they are probably
looking for libraries rather than fonts. So you might just copy the contents
of libs: over to ram also and assign libs:. If you've got enough
ram, you might want to copy all of l:, libs:, fonts:, and devs:!

While we're on the topic --- Once I heard someone mention the possibility
of keeping the contents of C:, LIBS:, etc in compressed form (in one file)
and uncompress it after copying this single file into VD0: (or RAM: too,
I guess...) Is anybody using this method? Is the savings in disk space
and boot-up time worth it? My Manx and TeX disks could certainly use some
more space!

Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu