Replies to post #3896 on Computer Learning (HELP)

[tc]

Interestingly, this mornings LangaLetter included this bit about memory managers. Whether it adds to this discussion I know not but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Memory Managers
Fred, Long time reader - keep up the great work! With all due respect to you, the steps presented in creating the DOS boot disk left out one critical item - a seldom used program called EMM386.EXE. This program must be included in the CONFIG.SYS file with the NOEMS option if you want to load any other program into "high" memory.

You have included this item in boot disks in the past. Being an old CP/M user, I knew something was missing, but couldn't put my finger on it. So I tried your configuration and nothing got loaded into high memory. Then I looked at some of your past articles - sure enough, it was included in "By the Bootstraps" ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/1011.htm ), and "Save Your Butt with DOS, Part 2" ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/16.htm ). I guess you were rushed this time.

Really enjoy your newsletter - best read I get, and I read a lot of 'em! ---Paul Alexander

No, it wasn't a matter of being rushed. It's that times change:

The NOEMS ("no expanded memory services") switch is useful mostly if you're going to run a pile of old DOS TSRs (terminate-and-stay-resident) or other low memory tools simultaneously: Using NOEMS and RAM, as in:

DEVICE=EMM386.EXE RAM NOEMS

does indeed help you gain a few extra KB of "low" memory. But a DOS emergency disk is rarely used that way, so the old low memory limits hardly ever come into play any more--- although there were germane in 1999, when the articles you cite first appeared. <g>

There's newer information in "System Setup Secrets" ( http://www.informationweek.com/LP/columnists/langa/2001/03.htm ), which updates those older articles. Using emm386 with newer software can actually *reduce* DOS performance. In most cases today, you do better with just HIMEM, as we discussed in the recent boot disk coverage.

(Note I also omitted other old-time DOS tweaks, such as the "buffers, files=" line in CONFIG.SYS. This is another tweak that mattered in the old days but that really doesn't do much on an emergency boot tool, especially if Smartdrv is loaded, as I suggest in the above.)