#: 3638 S10/Tandy CoCo
    20-May-90  23:12:26
Sb: #3622-#Window Problems
Fm: Mark Griffith 76070,41
To: Bruce MacKenzie 71725,376 (X)

Bruce,

We are trying (have been for a few years now) to get users to not iniz devices
using Level II, especially windows.  The reason is if they later close the
window (stop all processes running on it) and they don't deiniz it, the memory
for that window is kept by the system.  This could cause some real debugging
headaches later on if they run out of memory.

In your example (shown below):

 iniz w1
 display 1b 20 7 0 0 50 18 0 1 1 >/w1
 shell i=/w1&

the user is stuck with an immortal shell on /w1 and the window memory is locked
in until they specifically kill the shell and deiniz the window device. Your
example is fine tho, in that to send the display codes to the window and have
them "take", it either has to be iniz'ed or a path has to be opened to that
device.  A better way would be something like this:

 (display 1b 20 2 0 0 50 18 0 2 2;ex shell)>>/w&

This command starts a shell on the next available window, does the DWSET, and
then starts another shell.  Once the second shell is started, the first one
dies.  So, a path is be opened on the device the whole time and the DWSET
works.  As an added bonus, when the shell on that window dies, the window goes
away and the memory is returned.

If you wanted to, you can set this command line up in your execution directory
and call it "window" or something like that.  Then all you need to do is enter
that command and the window is created.  You can also do this to create
different types of windows, and call the commands "g80" or "g40" to make 80 and
40 columns graphics windows.

Mark

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