Hi Linda,

 PK> So you can see that unlike DV/QEMM, memory is NOT a hard limit with
 PK> OS/2.

 LP> If I'm reading you right, it's the swap file that limits what I can do?

No, its the human brain that provides the limit......;-) As I said before, the 
LIMITS you are thinking of do NOT exist in those terms. I should point out
that the OS/2 SWAP file is NOTHING like any SWAP file you have seen on a
Windows environment. On this machine for example, my CONFIG.SYS contains a
line that reads -

  SWAPPATH=E:\ 32768 2048

And this line means -
  1. The SWAP file will be SWAPPER.DAT (the standard name for the file) and it 
is to be placed in the Root Directory of drive E:.
  2. Allow the SWAP file to grow to whatever size it needs until there is NO
LESS THAN 32MB free on that drive. That partition has about 140MB free so the
SWAP could expand to about 108MB before OS/2 started giving me warnings. With
128Mb RAM I could load up about 230+Mb of applications before the warnings
appear...
  3. At system boot up, DELETE ANY EXISTING SWAPPER.DAT and allocate an
initial 2Mb of space to the SWAP file. This machine has 128Mb RAM so a SWAP
file is rarely needed. On the BBS with 32MB RAM, that line reads something
like -

  SWAPPATH=C:\ 32768 32768

On the BBS I expect the SWAP file to be used more than my machine so I
allocate a larger amount of SWAP file (32MB) for the occasions it is needed.
C: is a single 200MB SCSI drive and contains ONLY OS/2, and the BBS Executable 
files, no data files. BBS operations dont touch it so head movement is low and 
response is usually very fast. ALL BBS files/operations take place on another
Physical drive.

From the above you may have noticed some differences in the way the OS/2 SWAP
file works compared to Windows. The Windows environment allocates a FIXED SWAP 
file size per boot, however the OS/2 SWAP file is dynamic, it will grow and
contract automatically as the need arises during the runing of the machine,
PROVIDED you allow it to do this.

While there is no "fixed" method of calculating sizes, general thinking
suggests that you should never over-commit REAL memory by more than about
100%, IE with 32MB RAM, your SWAP file should not be allowed to grow to more
than about 32MB. I have had a swap file up to 74MB on a 32Mb machine, so it
was HEAVILY over-committed (200+%), however the machine continued to run fine, 
even if there was a lot of HD activity that slowed things down a bit. When the 
offending application ended (a graphics manipulation program that I needed to
run on a very large image), the swap file reduced back to 32MB no problems.
All this is automatic, you dont need to even think about it until you wish to
change it...


 LP> Oh I really hope so. I'm so tired of Windows kacking out on me & task
 LP> switching is a drag.

Well a multi-tasking OS must constanly switch tasks, but with OS/2 its all
automatic so its not such a drag...........;-)


 LP> Did you see my post(s) about my hard drives?  What do you think of what
 LP> I originally wanted to do?

I saw it, but laying out partitions and drives is not a simple task, you need
to know much more about HOW a machine is going to be used, and not just what
data goes on the disks, to get this right. I dont think I am exagerating to
say that I spent about 2 years in adapting from the DOS way of thinking about
partitions, to a way that made more sense with OS/2. My basic partition layout 
changed many times, and in ALL cases it was because I decided that I HAD to
change the way I thought about things. I can tell you now, whatever you start
out with will NOT be your final solution, it WILL change........;-) 

Whats probably more important, once you "undo" all the DOS think, you will
find that whatever you do with OS/2, will probably apply very close to any
other OS you wish to try.

As human beings we all like to feel comfortable with things we know and
understand. When something new comes along we will try and use it the way we
know, but eventually we realise we HAVE to adapt our understanding to better
match the new capabilities we have available.

For example, this machine currently has the following partition layout -
Drive 0 4GB
        Boot Manager
        C: Primary        30MB  FAT - Non-bootable
        D: Extended      500MB  HPFS - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect
        E: Extended      500MB  HPFS - OS/2 Warp 4
        F: Extended        1GB  HPFS - Work area
        G: Extended        2GB  HPFS - Applications/Data storage

I haven't booted Warp 3 (D:) in over 15 months, but its there if I need it.
Drive C: has some DOS utilities installed, but its not bootable. This allows
me to boot from Floppy and run some DOS specific apps if the need arises, any
viruses that do try and get fancy can play with C: but wont harm anything. As
long as I am still running OS/2, if I ever decide to leave DOS off my HD's,
then ALL partitions will be Extended partitions, life is MUCH easier that
way...

I last booted DOS (from floppy) about 2 months ago to run a DOS hardware
tester on a Network card I needed to test before I put it in the BBS machine,
but prior to that its been 3+ YEARS since I lasted booted DOS, and that was
just to check out H/W again! The last time ANY of my machines ran for more
than 1 day NOT under OS/2 would be about 1990, or even earlier, and that would 
have been DOS/DV. 

I better stop rambling, there is probably not too much I can add to the
comments you have already seen regarding your partition layout, you will soon
discover for yourself what will work well for YOU.

Cheers............pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01