Re: Lost Expanded Memory

["Chris Madsen" cmadsen@xxxxxxxx]

DICT.SPL (US) does not load automatically until you use the spell checker,
unless you make it load at startup by including a LOAD DICT.SPL line in
startup.int, but that is really unnecessary. Someone mentioned that you
should check the file size of DICT.SPL. That might have been the root of
your problem. If DICT.SPL gets corrupted, the file size shrinks dramatically
and you'll get that puzzling 'Out of Memory' message when you try to
spellcheck. The memory thing is a red herring. I don't have the UK
dictionary here, so I can't check things out.

Let me back up to your original message. If all you want is to use the UK
dictionary instead of the US dictionary, you have to first make sure the UK
dictionary is not corrupted, by looking at the file size. If it is
ridiculously small, then it is corrupted. Replace it with a fresh copy. To
use it automatically, I would think (and again I can't test this) that all
you have to do is rename the UK dictionary to be DICT.SPL and then place it
in the directory with EDITOR.EXE. (You'll need to rename the US DICT.SPL, of
course). If you want to switch back and forth, you should be able to write a
little program that unloads the currently loaded DICT.SPL (whichever one it
is) and renames the desired file. For instance, we first set up the two
dictionary files so we start with the UK version. This is not part of any
program; it's setup work. Assume that the US file is called DICT.SPL and the
UK version is called UKDICT.SPL. Our one-time work is this:

REN DICT.SPL OTHER.SPL
REN UKDICT.SPL DICT.SPL

Then you spell check something, causing DICT.SPL to load. (using UK
spellings)

Then you decide you want to switch. This is where the program runs:

RUN SWITCHSP.PGM. Now you will have the US spellings. RUN SWITCHSP.PGM again
and you will have UK.

Here is SWITCHSP.PGM:

BC unload dict.spl
BC ren dict.spl temp.spl
BC ren other.spl dict.spl
BC ren temp.spl other spl

Perhaps Robert knows of some quirk in the program that requires the US
dictionary to be loaded before the UK dictionary will work. That requires a
modified approach to what I have laid out. The one time work is to add a
line to STARTUP.INT to LOAD DICT.SPL . SWITCHSP.PGM remains the same. The
trick is to make sure that the US DICT.SPL is called DICT.SPL when you start
Xy. That's where Robert's batch file comes in.

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Breeze" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: Lost Expanded Memory


> Dear Robert
>
> On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 00:49:30 -0500, Robert Holmgren wrote:
>
>
>  <
>    
>
> No need to eat your hat. The procedure worked exactly as you said it
would. If this is going to
> be the only way to get the UK dictionary working, then please do write an
automated version of the
> procedure for startup.int.
>
> Before you do, however, can you explain why I have been able to load the
UK dictionary ever since I
> started using XY4, without ever having to load the US dictionary? I set
zx=1 in my startup.int,
> the UK dictionary loads (or did anyway) and then at the end of startup.int
I reset zx=0. This has
> worked perfectly until now. Puzzling.
>
> Regarding expanded memory, I would like to recover it if I can.
>
> My bios is:
>
> Award Modular Bios v6.00PG
>
> The precise system bios is:
>
> 07/31/2003-i856G-6A79AG0FC-00
>
> Best wishes
>
> Paul
>
>
>