Dealing with the dictionary

[Ken Norris (dialup)]

Thanks for the Re Jeanne,

> Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 19:05:12 -0800
> From: "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jeanne at runrev.com>
> Subject: Re: Dealing with the dictionary

> 
> At 12:32 PM -0800 2/10/03, Ken Norris (dialup) wrote:
>> When I'm at home on my boat, I work on my PB 1400c.
> 
> How much RAM does it have?
----------
48mb. It can go to a max of 64mb, but it's hard to find and expensive, so I
use virtual memory.
----------
>> Is there a way to separate out the docs and make them accessible as a
>> standalone with the cards accessible from an external HD or something. That
>> is, cards as HD data with no big RAM penalty?
> 
> Unfortunately, you can't open a stack without loading the entire file into
> memory. And the dictionary is a fairly large file (about 3.5M).
----------
Is that all? Why is it causing the computer to slow down or crash?
Everything works fine until I open the dictionary. Even with virtual memory
at 60mb, it often causes a crash. No other apps open.

For this reason, I have a formatted CF card I use as a drive for virtual
memory. It's 128mb and offers up 116mb of useable VM. Opening the dictionary
now won't cause crashes anymore, but everything is painfully slow, e.g.,
takes long periods to get to pages in the dictionary, 5 minutes to quit Rev,
etc. (the transfer rates of CF cards are notoriously slow compared to hard
drives).

Accessing other parts of the docs doesn't seem to cause problems. In fact, I
can look at some other parts of it and everything runs OK. But if I open the
dictionary, everything slows to a snail's pace and stays that way even after
I close the dictionary. I would think that closing it would allow the system
to give up the space on the CF card, but it apparently doesn't.

Anyway, I was hoping to get the docs (or at least the dictionary) off into
another machine more or less dedicated to them. I'd rather have them that
way anyway, so they don't interfere with what I'm doing on the screen, i.e.,
I can read them at the same time I'm working on a stack without having to
open and close, move, windowshade, docs stacks. I have one with, um, 64mb I
think. Can I make the docs into standalones? Would the memory penalty be any
better than running it from Rev?

Ken N.