home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
- │ Trademarked names are the property of the respective owners │
- └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
- Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1991, F.M. de Monasterio
- Licensed Material - All rights reserved
-
- x D I S K
- ---------
-
-
- What is new in version 3.00
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Increased performance by improving the optimization of mathematical routines.
- Introduced the 386 release of xDISK, developed through versions 2.60 to 2.97.
- (The 386 release operates faster than the 286 one by a factor of about 1.5 or
- so; however, note that xDISK input/output times remain primarily dependent on
- the performance of the expanded memory system.)
-
- Also introduced the option of self-installation in upper conventional memory,
- i.e., above the 640-kb limit of DOS, but below the 1-Mb limit of conventional
- memory, if an extended-memory manager compatible with XMS 2.0 is also present
- and a free upper-memory block of 2 kb is available; this preserves the amount
- of conventional memory available for DOS use. Unlike the high-memory loading
- provided by some (386) memory managers, XDISK.SYS self-loading in high memory
- only requires a free block of the size of the resident, and not of the entire
- driver. See XDISK.DOC for details on high-memory loading.
-
- The user can specify a lower high-memory limit above which the driver should
- try load itself (if a block is available above such a limit), to avoid upper-
- memory areas having slow memory access times. The enclosed ancillary utility
- TIMEM.EXE can be used to measure conventional memory access times; you should
- read TIMEM.DOC before using this utility.
-
-
-
- What is new in version 2.52
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Fixed problem that XDISK.EXE switches did not operate properly if XDISK.SYS
- was loaded in high-DOS memory with some memory manager loaders.
-
-
-
- What is new in version 2.51
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Command switches that do not resize the RAM disk are now processed by XDISK.
- EXE, rather than by XDISK.SYS, to speed up operation. New switches have been
- introduced: /A+ and /A-, to open (unlock) and close (lock) DOS access to the
- selected xDISK RAM disk(s); /P+ and /P-, to activate and inactivate password
- checking before any xDISK command (other than '/?') is implemented; and /Px,
- to define a password in which <x> is 1 to 15 alphanumeric characters.
-
-
-
- What is new in version 2.50
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The installation procedure was modified to avoid a potential error when using
- DOS version 3.1 or below, and its speed of execution was improved further via
- a software timer. Modified CRC calculation that failed in some 088 machines.
- Fixed bug in display of EMS error code returned when page allocation exceeded
- available memory. Fixed bug in switch /S that produced a fixed sector size of
- 256 bytes.
-
-
- What is new in version 2.42
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- An problem in version 2.41 affected the 'error return' of the installation of
- XDISK.SYS when using DOS versions 3.2X and below. Driver code was streamlined
- for faster operation.
-
-
- What is new in version 2.41
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- A hardware-dependent, software error in version 2.40 affected CRC calculations
- in some machines, and switch /S was missing in the unregistered copy of xDISK.
- SYS.
-
-
- What is new in version 2.40
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The resident code of XDISK.SYS also uses its own stack to avoid conflicts with
- some Expanded Memory Managers requiring a large amount of stack space for some
- of the EMS functions they support. Free space in the RAM disk is now displayed
- in the Status/Syntax panel.
-
-
- What is new in version 2.30
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The resident code of XDISK.SYS has been analyzed using a software timer and it
- has been modified to increase execution speed in both 086 and 286 versions. A
- further increase of execution speed, for the 286 version only, was obtained by
- realigning the code so that the procedures start at memory addressess that are
- multiples of 4. This increases execution performance in 80286 and, especially,
- 80386 computers.
-
-
- What is new in version 2.20
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- A version-2.1 bug generating an incorrect version message for DOS version 3.00
- to 3.09 and 4.00 to 4.01 has been fixed. The nonresident code of XDISK.SYS has
- been tightened to speed up the execution of ancillary services. The nonresident
- code of XDISK.SYS now switches to its own stack during driver initialization.
-
-