aiiadict@gmail.com wrote:
On Mar 8, 12:41 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:My conclusion is that AW3 is deciding to use the RW3 ram instead of the slinky ram when both are present, but perhaps it is just deciding to use the ramcard with the most free ram?That makes sense, since it has to pick *one* memory manager version.Why "has" ? why not: fill aux RAM up, then fill up slinky? Since main RAM doesn't have to hold all program code + data, it should be able to fit RWIII driver + slinky driver ????
Because AW is designed to use a modular memory manager, and only one memory manager can be present at a time. This could have been otherwise (though it would have taken more primary RAM--always in short supply regardless of add-on memory). It is much more complex if the memory manager does not fit into primary memory. It was a very reasonable design tradeoff considering that it was originally designed for the Apple /// (with a single banking scheme) and few owners would have been able to afford multiple memory extensions in the mid 1980s. -michael NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."