On 14 Jan 96 19:50, Paul Edwards wrote to Kieran Haughey:

Hi Paul,

PE>> 12 meg.  Disk space costs 50c/meg these days.

KH>> Even then, I'm lucky to get 4 meg free :).. and I know Hdd's cost 50c/meg 
KH>> but I still don't have the money to get it.. :)

PE> Check out AUST_TRADING and AUST_ADS for a second hand HDD.  You can
PE> get 120 megs for around $60 from memory (ie the "new" price for
PE> second hand gear, with the advantage that you don't need to buy
PE> a complete drive).

I plan on getting a 250meg hdd for $120-145 brand new.. soon :)..

PE>> You don't have a choice.  How were you planning on sorting
PE>> something larger than the size of memory without having to
PE>> read it into memory from disk all the time?  There may be
PE>> algorithms that take that into account, I don't know.  BFN.  Paul.

KH>> Multiple passing??.. I was originally thinking of a method where you read 

PE> Multiple passing = reading the same block from the disk multiple
PE> times = thrashing?

Umm.. maybe/maybenot :).. and anyway, it would only be thrashing when it
was using Virtual memory :)..

KH>> in a block, sorta that then got the next line read the same
sized block or  
KH>> something like that.. I was just wondering if there was a way to do it 
KH>> without using EMS/XMS..  although hopefully I should need to use  the 
KH>> sorter, so I might get you to compile it for protected mode for me if you 
KH>> could, because not many people run a BBS with less then 4 meg :)

PE> This is your dupey project is it?  Where did you get the 4 meg
PE> figure from?  Taking a guess, I would say that if someone has
PE> a hard disk that is capable of storing 4 meg worth of data just
PE> in the filenames, and they are running on a machine with 4 meg
PE> or less RAM, they deserve everything they get.  BFN.  Paul.

I mean't 4meg memory  :).. I mean most BBS's will have more
than 4meg memory.. I mean there aren't many which don't, except for those
who run on XT's and 286's.. and I said 4 meg because most computers are
sold with 4 meg stock standard... although that's slowly moving upto 8
meg..
ÿ
Cheers,
Kieran

3:711/413.17{at}fidonet
@EOT:

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