Re: graphic patch???

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

In article <4gm1pa$in3@news.ysu.edu>,
Adalbert Goertz <be404@yfn.ysu.edu> wrote:
>
>I have a complaint about all the graphic programs that I have
>used, i.e.
>GIF3200, jpeGS, Convert3200, ImageQuant:
 
>They dont recognize and dont use the RamFactor memory like
>AppleWorks does (which makes the full aux.mem available to
>the desktop).

   If you check the "About this Apple IIGS.." in the Apple menu of the
Finder, you'll see that the Finder doesn't use that ram.  Neither does
any other GS/OS application that I know of. [You can apparently use
Apple's slot 1-7 ramcard as a ramdisk with the right drivers, but
that's not what you're looking for.]

   This is because they were designed for the Apple //e, in which all
sorts of tricks were designed to get over 64/128K of ram. Some better
than others, but you could write some sorts of "drivers" for programs
like Appleworks-- programs that needed ram in small chunks
infrequently. These slotted cards are apparently accessed one byte at
a time, which gets annoying, and programs cannot be run directly from
them; they have to be copied in chunks into main memory and run from
there. Appleworks is small enough that it can sit and run in main
memory, only going out the cards to access files.

   The GS has its own, far more logical method of addressing memory--
the 65816 can access everything on the motherboard and its ram slot
when it wants. Programs can run from anywhere in ram/rom, and they do
it cleanly. No real demand has surfaced for accessing //e slot 1-7
ramcards; GS-specific ram is 100x more useful, and is now rather
cheap. Running a program off the card is useless unless you copy it
off the card and into ram, in which case you might as well use the
card as a ramdisk and do it neatly.

   Also, given that these programs expect memory to be mapped cleanly
and sanely, you'd have to pretty much rewrite them from scratch to use
either regular or //e slotted ram. I'd suggest buying a 4MB GS ram
card, and seeing how much better things run.

Nathan "Programmers like simplicity and usefulness" Mates

-- 
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
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