Yep,

Then again, IBM have always been plagued with "processing costs" in almost
every aspect of their code,CICS, MVS, or OS/2, haven't they .....! <g><bg><vbg>

Michel.

================= Your original message follows ==================
>Michel,
>
>Well, neither OS/2 nor MVS (both from IBM) work that way.
>
>What IBM came to learn with OS/2 was that the processing "cost" of fetching the trampled code from the EXE was way too high, and so they dropped it in favour of using the SWAP space ALWAYS.
>
>It is true that MS may not do it that way. But I'll bet they will, one day.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Jim N
>
>
>>Evan,
>>
>>What Joseph is saying is right. I do not know about Windows but I do
>>know about a number of other operating systems, and from my [very simple]
>>observations Windows seems to me to behave like most operating systems.
>>
>>1) Load program preamble.
>>2) Program preamble loads whatever else of the program that it needs to
>>get started. If the whole program fits into memory the program file
>>is closed to save file handles.
>>3) If what gets loaded is not the whole program, the program file, EXE in Windows, stays open, ie. "in use", and the operating system goes
>>and fetches whatever it needs as and when it is needed. If the operating
>>system needs to allocate memory to another process, in advanced operating
>>systems the operating system makes a choice between swapping out the
>>parts of the program that it already has in memory or discarding it
>>completely to re-read it back from disk later. What it definitely
>>swaps out to disk, however, is the memory footprint, ie. your program's
>>memory environment, etc....
>>
>>If Windows works in the same way as the operating systems I know,
>>Joseph's test proves the point and explains why you get "file in use".
>>
>>Michel.
>>
>>
>>
>>================= Original message follows ===================
>>
>>>>>Not that votes mean anything, I think that Ed is right about this one. If the whole EXE was loaded, why would the EXE file be "used by another process" if you try to make changes to it?
>>>>
>>>>This flies in the face of how Windows computers operate. EXEs are loaded into memory and if there isn't enough space in memory then the EXE is put into virutal memory which is usually on the local C: drive.
>>>>
>>>>The EXE is locked because this the file is in use. This is a quirk of file servers. I have never really understood why this locking occurs, it doesn't seem to make sense with EXEs.
>>>
>>>Try this: Load a VFP EXE. Load NOTEPAD.EXE from wherever you have it. Now, with both EXEs loaded, try to rename the VFP EXE. You can't, right? Try to rename the NOTEPAD.EXE. You can, right? What does this tell you?
>>>
>>>Joe