Re: //gs control panel changes

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <30rl76$dg6@carroll1.cc.edu>,
Ron Higgins <rhiggins@carroll1.cc.edu> wrote:
> 
> I thought I remembered seeing a program come across the 'binaries' group
> a couple of weeks back that will allow you to make changes to the Apple
> //gs control panel without re-booting.
> 
> What this member of our user group wants to do is be able to select
> either "your card" or "printer port" on the fly.

What card does he have in slot 1, and which environment are you
talking about?

Switching slots "on the fly" can cause problems.  Here are a few
potential problem areas:

1. NEVER switch slots on the fly while GS/OS is active.  GS/OS
identifies the device in each slot at startup time, and either loads a
driver for it or generates one.  If you changed the slot, you are
asking for a crash and/or data corruption.

2. Changing a slot after booting GS/OS and while in ProDOS-8 _might_
be OK, but to be on the safe side, it should be set back to the
original device before you return to GS/OS.

3. Under ProDOS-8, NEVER switch any slot containing a block device
(disk drives, RAM disks, etc.)  ProDOS builds a device table of these,
and will crash if you have a different device in the slot when ProDOS
scans the slots.

4. Some ProDOS-8 programs will identify devices that are present in
slots when you launch them, so switching slots while a program is
running is probably not a good idea.  In this situation, it is better
to quit from the program, switch the slot setting, then launch the
program again.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand