Re: Ascii 255, 64k limit, Off the record

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from jr_fox@xxxxxxxx Fri, 10 Nov 2000 21:00:02 -
0800

-> The 64K limit for defining / moving large blocks of text that
-> existed in v. 3 is gone in XY-4, correct ?

Correct-a-mundo. You can DeFine entire files -- big ones -- and
CoPy, MoVe, Delete, etc., the DF block with no problem. I regularly
do so, which is why I added a DeFine-All command to U2: DFA
highlights everything in the current window. As an experiment, I
just opened XY4.HLP, DFA'd it, then (1) CoPied and (2) MoVed this
2-Megabyte block into another window. No problem.

You won't, however, be able to Undelete large blocks, at least not
by standard methods. (I'm not sure what the Undelete limit is. It
may be 64K.) If you think you might want to undelete a big block,
issue SAB before deleting it. This backs it up it to disk,
with an easily-identifiable filename, for later retrieval.

By the way, there are three separate functions that delete DeFined
blocks (RD, NU and DN), and it's useful to distinguish among them.
RD and NU have Undelete capabilities; DN does not. RD appends the
block to the standard Undelete buffer. NU doesn't save it to the
buffer, but parks it in Save/Get 1816, whence it can be retrieved
with XPL: GT  and then, optionally,  to clear
Save/Get 1816. Both RD and NU will tax or exceed memory limits when
applied to big blocks. DN, by contrast, deletes DeFined text
irretrievably, without parking it in memory. Having func DN on a
key gives you the option of a clean, no-overhead deletion when
you're absolutely sure you won't ever need the DeFined text again.
Func DN is also the tool of choice in XPL programs, again to keep
overhead low.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/