Clearing state files (Was Re: Defective continued)
Dan Elswit (de21@cornell.edu)
Sun, 28 Jul 1996 11:08:15 -0400 (EDT)
>Return-Path: Man.Wong@internetmci.com
>Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 07:42:35 -0500
>X-PH: V4.1@cornell.edu (Cornell Modified)
>From: Man F Wong <Man.Wong@internetmci.com>
>Subject: Clearing state files (Was Re: Defective continued)
>To: Dan Elswit <de21@cornell.edu>
>
>-- [ From: Man F Wong * EMC.Ver #2.3 ] --
>
>Dan Elswit wrote:
>> Continuing my tale started in my other post, I just downloaded Omnicom
>and
>> poked around on my Ogo a little, looking for 80 or 90 mysterious KB's and
>I
>> found a likely candidate, but I'm not sure. My \GEOWORKS\PRIVDATA\STATE
>> directory has about 80K in it, all files created today. I'm wondering now
>what
>> the files in this directory do, and what the effect might be if I was to
>erase
>> them. I'm also toying with the idea of pulling the batteries out AGAIN,
>but
>> I'm afraid I'll lose even more ram at which point the ogo would be
>essentially
>> useless.
>
>DON'T pull out the batteries!! You MIGHT lose more storage!! Just
>joshing... ;-)
>
>If you read the FAQ or one of my recent posts to comp.sys.palmtops, you'll
>find out what those files are. Anyway, if you remove them, the OmniGo will
>"forget" the current state of any running apps that got temporarily
>switched out of heap space. IOW, when you switch back to an app, it'll
>start from its initial/default launching state (eg. your Notepad will show
>all notes in the list view instead of exactly where you left it in the
>middle of editing). This also means that the app will launch as slowly as
>it would when you run it for the first time since a reboot. Also, you will
>not be allowed to delete any state files of apps that are still in heap
>space even if they may be running in the background (ie. not visible on
>screen).
>
>In any case, it's good to occasionally remove state files to free up their
>space since they can be storage hogs and are not automagically cleared out
>when you exit their respective apps (even if you absolutely close the apps
>w/ FN+F3). The easiest way to clear out all state files is to soft reboot,
>but this is not a nice way to do it since you don't have the choice of
>keeping some apps in their current state.
>
>Another way is to use a free/shareware program called Free Memory to clear
>out state files of apps that are no longer in heap space. While this does
>not give you absolute control over which state files are cleared, I find it
>quite useful when I'm low on internal storage because apps seem to get
>switched out of heap space on a least recently used basis (LRU swapping).
>IOW, the apps whose states get cleared are apps that you haven't used in
>the longest period of time. This does not, for example, guarantee that you
>won't lose changes to a note you were editing while you check your
>Appointment Book, your Phone Book, use the Calculator, etc. before
>returning, but you could limit yourself from Freeing Memory in such cases.
>Afterall, if you can't remember you were editing something, then you
>probably won't miss the changes. Also, if you use the Express Menu to
>check what apps are still in heap space (ie. they're labeled as Running
>Applications) >>AFTER<< launching Free Memory, you'll know which apps'
>state files >>WON'T<< be cleared out. If (as in the example) your Notepad
>is not "running" (in heap), then you could switch back to it first before
>confirming to Free Memory (yes, it asks for confirmation). NOTE, however,
>that a few apps like Appointment Book show up as a blank "running app", so
>you might need to do a little deductive reasoning to figure out which apps
>are "running" in heap.
>
>Finally, if this is not good enough, you should use a file manager
>(preferably OgFile or BMS File Manager) to manually delete which specific
>state files you no longer need. I suggest using BMS; you'll probably like
>it for its intuitiveness, but it does lack a file size inquiry command
>which could be useful in this case.
>
>FYI, I store all my frequently used, small utility apps (eg. Free Memory
>and BMS File Manager) in the Desk Accessories folder so that they appear at
>the top level of the Express Menu for added convenience. Even if you do
>not use Express Menu for the above purpose, you might find the
>customizations that Expert Mode (the app that enables EMenu) affords very
>helpful and productive (once you figure out how to set up EMode). The
>EMenu button is easily accessible and appears at the far left side of the
>title bar (next to "check" button) of any app that's running in the
>foreground, except for a very few apps like Appointment Book (not sure why)
>. Anyway, I don't think I could live w/out Express Mode/Menu. ;-) YMMV.
>
>You can find all the apps I mentioned (except for Free Memory) at Max
>Mansour's OmniGo web site. If you want Free Memory, I can mail it to you
>(I don't remember where I found it).
>
>Have fun! be productive ;-) and enjoy!!
>
>_Man_
>
>PS: May I trouble you to forward this mail to the OGO mailing-list on my
>behalf since it may be of use to others also? Thanx.
>
>
______________________________________________________
Daniel Elswit
Research Support Specialist/Network Administrator
Soil, Crop, and Atmospheric Sciences
Cornell University, Ithaca NY