Re: HardPressed

[fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)]

In article <1vq96s$1im@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> cb408@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jason Reames) writes:
>  * though the documentation says it can be installed on a 3.5" drive,
>I haven't been able to do so, even after working on for an hour.

All you have to do is use the "install on 3.5" disk script".  If you have HP
running, it will try to uncompress the pre-compressed system files, and you
will run out of space.  It tells you this in the manual.  You need to
turn HP off from the CDA or CDev.

>The error message says there wasn't enough disk space.  (Why didn't it 
>tell me so before swapping disks for 20 minutes!)

The files were smaller before you started copying them.  The installer
program (which Apple wrote, not me) checked the block sizes and determined
that it could fit.  HP expanded the files while they copied, so they occupied
more space than expected.

ALWAYS read the manual when you start having troubles.

You will probably have a better experience if you install it on an 800K
RAM disk and then just copy the whole thing over to a 3.5" disk when you're
done... fewer disk swaps that way.  Again, leave HP set to "inactive" so it
doesn't try to expand the files while it copies.

>  * I had 4 files trashed in 3 days-(2 HyperStudio stacks and 2 Hyper-
>Card stack).  Technical Support thought there might be a problem
>with Kangaroo, but even when I disabled Kangaroo the files were
>trashed.

This I find difficult to believe.  Several of the beta testers were
Hyper-Whatever users, and didn't have a problem.  I'd be interested to
know the circumstances around how these got trashed, and what exactly
"trashed" means... won't read?  Disappeared?  Garbage inside when you got
at them?  Did they fail to save correctly because of lack of system memory?

Did you try running the stand-alone application on them for a diagnosis?
(it lives in the "Goodies" folder on the install disk).  Perhaps the files
are fine but can't load because you don't have enough memory...?

The Kangaroo problem is a conflict between a Kangaroo tool patch and the
"Folders" display in the HardPressed CDev.  That's all.  If you don't go
into the "Folders" display, you'll never see a problem.  Seven Hills knows
about the bug and it'll be fixed in the next version of Kangaroo.

>  * It is VERY RAM hungry.  I have 2.25M RAM.  I use 96k for a Ram drive
>and parcelled out 128k for HP to use as cache.  With that configuration
>I was only able to only ONE Platinum Paint document.  HyperCard GS
>refused to even run.

- The INIT is about 64K.
- The standard set of modules probably use about 100K.
I figure the total use is well under 200K.  I don't see that as being
excessively RAM hungry.

The RAM cache only uses 128K when you have file(s) open.  It doesn't
permanently take that much memory, it only grabs it when it needs it.  If
you're running out of memory, turn the cache off.  Also, try booting with
and without HP (hit 'H' while booting), and check the available memory in the
control panel... that'll tell you exactly how much extra memory is being
used.

Chances are you were riding right on the edge before, and the extra memory
used by HP sucked up what little was left.  Kangaroo is a fairly large INIT;
it may well use up more memory than HP does.

>  * It is very slow- nearly two minutes to open AWGS and a doc (and I
>have a Zip Chip).

This is also hard to believe.  With a Zip 8MHz/16K and a RamFAST, and AWGS
compressed with RLE, it takes all of 16 seconds to uncompress AWGS.  If you
have a very slow hard drive or you compressed it with Adaptive Huffman, then
this would make sense, but I've never seen ANYTHING take that long.

AWGS is being uncompressed to a temporary file on your HD.  If it takes two
minutes to read the compressed file, write the uncompressed file, and then
let the system loader read the AWGS modules you selected for pre-loading in
from the uncompressed file, then yes, it will take two minutes.  The fastest
ZipGS in the world won't help you there.

If it really does take that long, don't compress it.

>R Reames .............................................Maranatha!!

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]