

    IMPORTANT:  If you should create an error because of the drive door
                open, be aware that choosing <A>bort as an option will
                return you to DOS.  The obvious choice is to close the
                drive door and <R>etry.  <F>ail will return you to PmCat
                with things as they were before the error.  ( <I>gnore
                has never struck me as a viable option when DOS informs
                of an error ... you may know better ... <grin>


    Earlier versions of PmCat requested all available memory on a system
    (up to 640K), when it was run.  That approach left NO DOS MEMORY
    available for the shell option which we have installed in this version.
    We must decide at the time we compile PmCat just how much memory a user
    will require ... and obviously that is quite impossible.

    We regretfully had to restrict the memory available in this distribution
    version of PmCat to 250K in order to ensure all of the features would
    work on as many configurations of computers as possible and that the
    above situation didn't occur without warning, causing the user to
    suspect the integrity of PmCat.

    The accompanying documentation details how we will handle this situation.

    In spite of the necessary memory restrictions, PmCat is still capable
    of extremely powerful cataloging functions.   Even though the 250K
    available in memory does limit the number of files to 1000 - 6000
    (fully commented vs no comments at all ... approximately), it is
    extremely easy to create multiple catalogs that are accessed from
    withing PmCat, and the addition of the DOS SHELL function allows you
    to look at files, delete, move, copy, etc. on the floppy disks and
    immediately update without having to leave PmCat and reload it each
    time you just want to "check-out something".

    And in the case that you just want maximum memory for your catalog
    and don't care about the DOS SHELL feature, you may obtain a custom
    configured copy of PmCat for your own use as detailed in the documentation
    that accompanies this package.

    Work is proceding on making more aesthetically pleasing and useful hardcopy
    formatting available in PmCat.  The printing of diskette labels is also
    very seriously under consideration.  Both of these options will require a
    great deal of time and effort however, and there is no way to accurately
    predict when they might be ready.  Rest assured we do consider these
    features essential.

    Don't forget to turn off your 'perf-skip' feature on your printer, if
    you have it ... the docs contain formfeeds.

    Also, to accomodate the longer names for the ASSIGN PATH as VOLUME
    feature, it was necessary to increase the size of every record by
    8 bytes.  The result is that the path, if greater than 12 bytes will
    not be displayed fully, but it will be read properly ... although
    you will not be able to view it with PmCat.  If you have a specific
    need for a longer PATH, I can custom configure a copy for you ... but
    bear in mind that for each 1 character increase (it is currently 12)
    you will loose memory at the rate of the number of files in your
    catalog.  (E.g, if you increase it by 8, up to 20 characters, and
    have a catalog with 2000 files, your memory will be decreased by
    approximately 16,000 bytes.) That 2000 file catalog would take up
    about 40 bytes per file + 80 bytes/file for comments without extending
    the size of the filename to 20.  Perhaps this is enough explanation
    for you to visualize how much memory you may require and which
    memory configuration would fit most closely.

