-=> Pearls of Wisdom from Anne Page on 30 Jul 96  20:28:00 <=-
 AP> My GeoFile database for the subscriber and sample mailing lists for my
 AP> monthly canine newspaper presently has 1896 data records in it.  Each
 AP> record has 13 fields, one of which contains all of the information
 AP> about the subscriber's dog sports activities and identification of
 AP> breeds owned and whether the person is a breeder or not and sometimes
 AP> has as many as three or four full lines of narrative text in it.
   That's pretty big, OK.
 AP> The only time I get a KR-09 nowadays is if I ask for too many pages
 AP> of 3-across 30 to a page labels to print in one queue.  When I
   My problem has had nothing to do with printing.  I have always been
   able to print whatever I have wanted.  And, since I'm not managing a
   DB as large as yours, I haven't noticed any problems with speed
   degradation.
 CL>>   The problem is not system dependent.  It has happened on various
 CL>>   systems
 AP> I think it is a problem with your handles setting in Preferences or
 AP> that you are not shutting off your screen saver before attempting to
 AP> sort or print from GeoFile.
   Just to be sure, I checked my handles settings.  Just as I thought, I
   have always bumped them up to the maximum value of 3500.  I don't see
   the screen saver as a contributing factor because it doesn't come on
   while I'm actively working in the DB.
 AP> The other possibility might be that you are not saving as you exit
 AP> in order to exit cleanly.  Even if you did a save, you should "close"
 AP> so that GEOS asks if you want to "save" and you can say "yes" for a
 AP> clean exit.  Someone more technical than I can explain it better, I
 AP> am sure, but I have found that doing a save every few records is not
 AP> the same as the exit save.  Yes, the save every few records is saving
 AP> the new ones to the datafile, but the save on exit is what lets GEOS
 AP> put everything back where it should be or whatever it does to have
 AP> the file right when you open it the next time.
   This may be the one area that I haven't paid meticulous attention to.
   I did remember some discussion about exiting GeoFile from some time
   ago and usually try to ensure that I'm up to date on my saves before
   an exit.  I'll pay close attention to this.
   Thanks for your reply, Anne, but the KR-09 errors you describe are
   different than the ones I have run into.  I have experienced the
   occasional KR-09 while working in a file, but, like you, I am able to
   exit and return to it with only minor interruption.
   However, the type of error which I have written about occurs when
   trying to open a GeoFile.  It goes through the motions of opening
   normally and then hangs up before completely opening.  At that point,
   I am stuck.  There is no way (that I have found) to access the file
   any further.  Repeated attempts to exit and retry result in the same
   thing - a hangup.  Once the file is corrupted, it is lost.  I can't
   even get back into it to re-enter data in the formats I created.  The
   entire DB is lost to me.  Unless I have a backup, it's back to the
   drawing board.  And backups are no guarantee.  Once the file is
   corrupted - and I don't know when that is until I try to open it
   again - it also transfers its corruptions when backed up.  IOW, I
   back up the file, but unknowingly, it is corrupted, too.  So no
   relief there.
   Unfortunately, there is nothing I can pin it to.  It's not operating
   system, since it has happened in DRDOS and various editions of MSDOS.
   It has happened on computers with and without Windows.  It has
   happened on a 386, 486, and pentium.
   As I wrote above, the exit phenomenon may have something to do with
   it, even though I am typically careful to ensure that the last save
   has been made and the exit is clean.  In short, I am baffled, since
   one of the strong points with Ensemble has always been its
   reliability with regard to data preservation.
TTFN --CHUCK--
... Does vacuuming count as aerobic exercise?
--- ==>> Back to RA via Win95!
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