PMFJI:

Evan: Are you using the Blinker Linker? If not, I strongly suggest you do so. What version of Clipper? You should try the last one: 5.3b. If not, I strongly suggest you do so. Blinker (full version - not the limited one included with later releases of Clipper) allows both Real and Protected mode memory management, which Clipper itself cannot do. In Protected mode under Win9x and NT, I have not only had great performance and gobs of working memory available to Clipper, but in the event of a crash it doesn't take down the whole machine. One example link script I use is:

# BLINKER link file - trvl agency sales program v.2.0 - rev. 10-25-1993
# - for clipper-5
# rev. 94-03-13 - to use grumplib v.4.0
# rev. 94-12-24 - use blinker 3.10 dual mode link
# rev. 95-09-14 - for clipper 5.3/blinker 3.20
# rev. 97-10-15 - added is_nt.obj - test for win-nt
#
FILE invsales, is_nt
OUTPUT invsales
OVERLAY CODE
# MAP S,A
BLINKER EXECUTABLE COMPRESS 1
BLINKER MESSAGE NOBLINK
BLINKER EXECUTABLE DUAL
BLINKER INCREMENTAL OFF
BLINKER EXECUTABLE CLIPPER //F:030 //E:000
# BLINKER MEMORY PACK 20
# VERBOSE
BEGINAREA
SECTION FILE invsale1, invsale2, invsale3
ALLOCATE c:\grump\grmlib40\clip_5x\grump52
ENDAREA
SEARCH C:\BLINKER\LIB\BLXCLP53.LIB
LIBRARY C:\clip53\LIB\CLIPPER
BEGINAREA
ALLOCATE C:\clip53\LIB\EXTEND
ENDAREA

Note the //E:000 - do not allow EMS. //F:030 - allow 30 file handles. The # is to comment out that line. The BLINKER EXECUTABLE DUAL gives this EXE a dual-mode capability -- real plus protected.

I also do some stuff in the root module to display the memory mode in use, as it is affected by available memory, and the 'is_nt' test for doing things differently in NT than other OS's when I can (like calling R&R for Windows or R&R for DOS depending on whether called from an NT session or not) and this one can be run reliably either directly from DOS or from an icon under Win9x or NT.

As you may also know, Blinker takes all the pain out of overlay management, better than anything else I've used, and can be used for C and other languages with full, true Windows executable output...

HTH.

Rob


>Evan,
>
>You need the F parameter because Clipper will take the lower between the Files and the F parameter, and if you do not specify it will be 20, the default.
>
> X:nKbytes specifies the amount of memory to exclude from being
> allocated, except for the RUN command. Specified in kilobytes, valid
> values range from zero to 64 inclusive. If not specified, the default
> value is zero.
>
>I do not remember exactly why I used it, I think to allow other programs to run with the run command, because other way clipper keeps all the base memory for itself. But I am not sure.
>
>Other parameters that may be of you interest are:
>
> DYNF:nHandles specifies the number of file handles the dynamic
> overlay system is allowed to use. Valid settings range from 1 to 8
> inclusive. If not specified, the default is 2.
>
> E:nExpandedKbytes restricts the amount of expanded memory
> automatically allocated to . CA-Clipper-compiled and
> linked programs can use expanded memory to speed up processing as well
> as some disk-based operations. CA-Clipper can use memory configured
> as expanded memory according to the Lotus-Intel-Microsoft (LIM)
> Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) version 4.0 or higher.
>
> Expanded memory is automatically allocated in its entirety at startup;
> there is no dynamic allocation as execution proceeds. The maximum
> amount allocated is limited by four factors:
>
> _ The amount available
> _ The SET CLIPPER=//E:nnn environment setting
> _ A theoretical maximum of 32MB
> _ The amount of conventional memory available
>
> Note that a certain amount of conventional memory must be used to
> contain management tables for the virtual memory system--the more total
> memory (both conventional and expanded), the more space taken up by
> this control information. The amount of expanded memory used may be
> less than the amount available if there is insufficient conventional
> memory to hold the tables.
>
>SWAPK:nBytes specifies the maximum allowable size of the disk
>swap file used for the virtual memory (VM) system. Settings are
>specified in kilobyte increments. Valid settings range from 256 to
>65,535 inclusive. If this setting is not specified, the default is
>16,384 (16 MB).
>
>Note: Swap space is only allocated as needed--a particular setting
>does not guarantee that the swap file will get that big. Suppressing or
>restricting disk swapping may cause an application to fail.
>
>SWAPPATH:'path' specifies the location of the virtual memory swap
>file. If not specified, the swap file is created in the current DOS
>drive and directory.
>
>HTH, and sorry for the length of the message, there is little more information in the Norton Guides, but another parameter you can use is INFO that will give you information about CA-Clipper's memory usage at startup of an application.
>
>Hugo