Hi Mark,

 ME> I'm not sure if this answers me or not since the way i phrased it may be 
 ME> unclear. I know when i make a shadow and then rename it, the original
name
 ME> gets changed, I learned that the hardway :).  But if i  create an 
 ME> object, can i rename it (or create it) as any name i want?

Sure you can.


 ME> here is likely what i should have asked....

 ME> In my zip shell program I use, I can open things in a file viewer or open
 ME> using object association.  so what is the difference between opening say
a
 ME> text file with my text viewer (specified as an EXE) or creating my 
 ME> text file viewer as an object? It seems to me an object is sort 
 ME> of like system wide,  where as my text viewer will have to be specified 
ME> in every program where i want to use it.

Its hard to say without more detail on how your shell invokes these services.
Does it try and "launch" the file to be viewed and thus uses the systems
association for the file, or does it launch the viewer executable directly and 
pass it the name of the file to be viewed? We would need a lot mroe details
about your shell program to be able to accurately answer this.


PK> I also have the option of stopping STARTUP.CMD at any point I wish. 

 ME> I getcha. What is the format of the startup.cmd file? 

Its just a conventinal .CMD file, similar to a BATCH file.


 ME> Any tips for running a dos bbs? thats pretty much all i 
 ME> will be doing on this machine....maybe i should ask you 
 ME> in the os2 bbs echo...

I have only ever run an OS/2 BBS under OS/2 (since OS/2 1.3) so I can't
comment on DOS ones. I doubt there would be much different to real DOS except
for the events you can run in parallel on the OS/2 environment, rather than as 
a serial sequence (EG exiting after a Mail seesion so that incoming mail can
be processed).


PK> This makes the Pallette change system wide rather than just
PK> to the object it was dropped on.

 ME> so i can do this for fonts as well?

Yes.


PK> so too much cache may actualyl slow it down. Start with 256 
PK> and then try 512 and see how that affects it.

 ME> yes, I'm using only HPFS partitions. is this cache the line that starts:

 ME> IFS=C:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:2048

Thats the one, 2048 is just a waste of memory in your case, change it to
something MUCH less. See Wills message about this, start small and only grow
if absolutely necessary. 

One of the most common traps that a lot of DOS people get into with OS/2 is to 
try and apply DOS concepts to what they are doing. Most of these plans dont
take into account the way OS/2 uses resources such as memory, and that on a
system that is constrained for memory (such as yours is), items such as LARGE
cache values can be real killers.


PK> Dont run too many applications at the same time, 
PK> try and close the ones you dont need before opening up new ones. 

 ME> 90% of the time it will be the bbs only as a single 
 ME> node. the other 10% will be the bbs and me locally at the same time

I ran a 3 line BBS under OS/2 2.1 in 8Mb memory, then 3 lines under Warp 3 in
16Mb that increased to 4 lines, but in these cases the system was tuned to
handle it. Now its back to 2 lines with 32Mb so its easy street, but in each
state I needed to consider what I was trying to do with the system to make
sure a shortage of resources were not causing conflicts. Even on the 16MB
system, user performance was not impacted, except in areas that MUSt be
affected, such as offline mail opacking time.


PK> If you have the chance, place your SWAPPATH on the 
PK> MOST USED PARTITION, of LEAST USED DRIVE! This helps to 
PK> reduce the head movements and optimises the
PK> swap file performance.

 ME> yes, I remembered this part. I have it on the only 
 ME> partition, on the second 
 ME> hard drive. Pretty much nothing will be on this drive 
 ME> except files for d/l'ing
 ME> from the bbs.

Sounds perfect.

 ME> Everything else will be on one of the 2 partitions on the first 
 ME> drive. this drive where the swap file is will be 
 ME> 500megs and i set the swap  file at 16000 16000, so this 
 ME> means it will always leave 16megs free on the 
 ME> drive and will always start at 16megs in size, is that correct?

Yep. Should be ok, unless you fill the drive up and it decides it needs more
than 16Mb for swap........;-)

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


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