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From: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MultiFinder RAMDisks
Message-ID: <6700@apple.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Nov-87 18:28:07 EST
Article-I.D.: apple.6700
Posted: Tue Nov 10 18:28:07 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Nov-87 03:59:56 EST
References: <1927@unc.cs.unc.edu> <6664@apple.UUCP> <5104@oberon.USC.EDU> <3150@husc6.UUCP>
Reply-To: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer
Lines: 48

In article <3150@husc6.UUCP> singer@endor.UUCP (Richard Siegel) writes:
>
>	This is too much. One person asks a simple question: "Are there
>any RAMDisks that run under MultiFinder?" Instead of a straight answer, 
>all that I've seen is a bunch of stupid cracks, and peripheral information,
>and absolutely *nothing* that helps to answer the original question! 

Agreed.  One of my math teachers in high school always told us to "answer
the question that was asked".  

>	Does *someone* know the answer? I too am rather interested to

I don't have a specific answer, but can offer one bit of information, based
on my experience with large screens on a Mac Plus.

I don't think there is an inherent problem with Multifinder and RAM disks.
I tried the Levco Prodigy RAM Disk and it seemed to work.

The main reason why a RAM Disk would not work under Multifinder is that it
installs itself by running an application and grabs memory by adjusting the
top of free memory.  In the old days, any application could do this because
it had control of the entire machine.  After Multifinder has started, it is
too late to reserve memory in this way.  (I had to install the Prodigy RAM
Disk with Mutlifinder turned off, for the same reason.)

So the question becomes one of finding a RAM Disk that doesn't require it to
be the start up application.

One workaround that someone could try would be to startup the machine
without Multifinder running, install the RAM Disk, and then launch
Multifinder (by holding down the Command and Option keys and double clicking
on the Multfinder icon).  

If the RAM Disk supports specifying the name of the application to run after
it quits, you might be able to tell it to run Multifinder after it installs
a RAM disk.  (You might have to change Multifinder's file type to APPL
first.)


-- 
Larry Rosenstein

Object Specialist
Apple Computer

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