Re: RAM5 GS/OS Driver Version 1.5

[nathan@cco.caltech.edu (Nathan Mates)]

In article <webmaster-0508961802200001@pm2-058.sct.fr>,
Michael Guitton <webmaster@cardshow.com> wrote:
>In article <4tu52s$9ko@gap.cco.caltech.edu>, nathan@cco.caltech.edu
>(Nathan Mates) wrote:
>You allocate 4 RAMdisks because there is no way to dynamically change the
>device list(**) under GS/OS, right? 

   There might be, but as I need to keep around internal tables for
the drive info, I reserved space for 4 drives in the source
code. (Yeah, I could have done it cleanly with allocated pointers, but
I'm paranoid about memory trashing on blocks having run into it so
many times. If something overwrites the tables in the middle of my
driver, then things are probably in bad enough shape that blasted
ramdisks are the least of people's worries. )

   After I get done getting the system into a state where nothing
blasts memory (estimated to be GUPP 1.3.45, due for release March
17th, 1998 :), I could rewrite swatdisk to do things better. That is,
if anyone pays for the Swatdisk shareware $, and there's interest by
more than one person to have 17 ramdisks, not just 4.

   The 4 devices for Swatdisk is like that for other drivers-- it's
encoded into the auxtype of the driver. Initially, when GS/OS calls my
driver to scan the disks, I say 'no disk present'. When someone
creates a disk, I can then say 'Yo, disk inserted here!' and tell it
the size of the disk. It works fine for now; 4 swatdisks is more than
enough for myself and anyone who's paid.

Nathan Mates
-- 
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
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# Kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in 
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