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Re: Taming XP



What benefits do you get from using TAME with Xy on WinXP?

I don't have XP on a computer at the moment (although I own it), but it seemed to me had when Win2K got to service pack 4, I couldn't see any difference in screen performance when Tame was active.  Is XP in need of "help"?

Myron 

From: Michael Norman mailto:mn2@xxxxxxxxmn2@xxxxxxxx
Date: March 16, 2006 12:43:57 PM AST
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: TAME report


I recently switched desktops -- from W98SE to XP Pro -- and have TAME 5.0 working. All that follows is based only on test one system: XP PRO on a Dell Optiplex GX260 with a ATI Raedon 9700 AGP installed. When I have time, I'll test it on an IBM T41 XPro.
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The Short Version: Two important points: 1 In XYWRITE.app.tam the toggle "WinKeys = #00000FFF" works in REVERSE for XY. Uncommenting it (removing "*;") disables it.  I had to disable it to get CLIP to work. 2. Put TAME.ini in \Tame\Settings and uncomment  "ResetNumLock   = T". XY will still come up with the Numlock set, but as soon as you touch ANY KEY it disappears.
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The Long Version: (What worked for me)

1. If you have installed a previous version of TAME, uninstall it. Then you have to check the registry to make sure ALL the entries are gone. In XP with ERUNT, this is relatively easy and safe. ERUNT gives you the backup and you can use Regedit. I used JV16 Power Tools. Even if you long ago uninstalled TAME, I would still check the registry. I found I had to get rid of all previous TAME Registry entries from any version to make 5.0 work.

2. After uninstall, I checked further and deleted from my C: drive any file associated with the program, especially any left-over files with a .tam extension. This many not be necessary, but after several days of trail and error, it became a habit.

3. Download and install TAME 5.0.

4. From \Tame\Settings\Samples copy

XYWRITE.app.tam
Editor.exe.tam
Tame.ini

    to \Tame\Settings.

5. In XYWRITE.app.tam, uncomment "WinKeys = #00000FFF" (Since it's possible that the REVERSE effect I described above is an anomaly caused by my system, you may have to return to this settings and switch it back off. Point is, this setting is one of the keys to getting TAME to work.)

6. In Tame.ini, uncomment "ResetNumLock   = T"

7. Create a shortcut to editor.exe

8. In the .pif, open "properties." Here, from RH, are the settings: "Make sure the box at the bottom that says "Close on exit" is **checked**.  Cmd line should say C:\XY4\EDITOR.EXE /e4000.  Working should say C:\XY4.  Batch file should be empty.  Shortcut key None.  Run Normal window.  Memory tab: Conventional mem Auto, Auto; Expanded 5120; Extended None; DPMI Auto.  Screen tab:  Pick your preferred Usage, check everything else.  Misc tab: UNcheck Background Always suspend and Mouse Exclusive mode.   Idle sensitivity slider in the middle.  Leave everything else
as-is.  Pick a font you like.  Apply everything, OK to close the Properties window."

Key to the above is "UNcheck Background Always suspend." This smooth's CLIP's way.

(8A.) If you are running Notabene, you have one additional step. On my setup, TAME and NB do not get along, so in my .pif under "program" tab-->Cmd Line, I run Xywrite.bat, which calls up editor them invokes TAME -- and, of course, you have to comment out the TAME startup from Autoexec.nt.

The result of all this is a very robust TAME console running XY in just about any font you want, any size you want, any speed you want. I had to make a few more tweaks, again perhaps anomalies of my system. For example, at some point during a XY session after switching views many times, the cursor slowed to a crawl. If that happens, try putting the following values in XYWRITE.app.tam

KeyRepeat1=15 ;
KeyRepeat2=25 ;
KeyRepeat3=75 ;
KeyRepeat4=150
KeyRepeat5=500

These values come from: UserOptions.template.tam in \Tame\Settings\Samples.

Finally, David Thomas, author of TAME, is working on another version and some more XY settings. I've sent him roughly 40 pages from the XY manual (he needed to know cursor commands and so forth) and pointed him to Xywrite.com so he can access the customization guide and the default settings. Since I'm at the very limit of my technical knowledge in all of this, I hope the cognoscenti will step in and fill the void if necessary. I can post David's questions here for answers.

Good luck.

Michael Norman