Espresso for a scholar's memory!
Guidelines
To access that menu, you must have CLEARMEM.RUN, along with companion help files CLEARMEM.HLP and CLEARMEM.OVR, in your main NB directory (probably C:\NB4\ ).
Fixes a small problem with the "Toggle phrase library" feature, so that your designated overflow drive can include a backslash or subdirectory designation. (This is set by the DR= line in your NBCUSTOM.SET file.)
New: ClearMem version 1.1 added a menu options that clears extra memory by turning off features such as spell checking/replacing, hyphenation etc. The main menu item for doing this invokes code taken from James D. Ernest's FREEMEM.RUN program. An additional menu item now turns off these same features and also clears any print driver in use.
Newer: ClearMem version 2.0 now adds other menu items for particularly demanding users. The Orbis section includes "Pick textbase." If you use multiple textbases under conditions that place demands on memory, this feature will make sure the files in all windows are saved, abandon them, switch textbases under favorable memory conditions, and then restore your files to their windows just as you had them. The memory management section also includes "Toggle phrase library..." for anyone who still encounters problems; it will clear space in special memory areas that Orbis might be competing for.* If you have not had problems switching textbases through the regular Orbis menu, and Orbis has not beeped at you for other reasons, do not bother with this feature. But it will be there if you do.
Above all: ClearMem version 2.0 works more smoothly, offers help screens, adds little features you'll probably not notice but that improve performance, and does all this while actually taking up less memory during operation.
*WARNING: This feature will also check to see whether any recent deletions in your clipboard (cf. Ctrl-grey+) are larger than 200 bytes, and erase them so that your total clipboard size is no larger than 1K. These deletions are volatile anyway, so this feature does not present a major new risk, but I thought you ought to know!
To access this program in a single keystroke, I suggest that you permanently place the following sequence on your AT-type keyboard's "pause" key (in both the ",MENU+CTRL+ALT" and the "CAPS" tables of the NB.KBD file):
90=ni,dx,ch,bc,r,u,n, ,c,l,e,a,r,m,e,m,.,r,u,n,xc
If this does not work for you, or you simply prefer a different keystroke, you may of course place the same sequence on another key in NB.KBD.
It is also possible to use CLEARMEM.RUN to move directly to the main menus of ORBIS and IBID, using arguments. Following the command to run CLEARMEM.RUN with a
Thus, you might wish to replace the standard Ctrl+Alt+F4 and Ctrl+Alt+F6 key assignments for accessing these menus by adding the following sequences to the CTRL+ALT table in your NB.KBD file:
62=ni,dx,ch,bc,r,u,n, ,c,l,e,a,r,m,e,m,.,r,u,n, ,2,xc
64=ni,dx,ch,bc,r,u,n, ,c,l,e,a,r,m,e,m,.,r,u,n, ,1,xc
Or, you might also wish to replace the standard Ctrl+F4 and Ctrl+F6 key assignments for accessing these menus by adding the following sequences to the CTRL table in your NB.KBD file:
62=ni,dx,ch,bc,r,u,n, ,c,l,e,a,r,m,e,m,.,r,u,n, ,2,xc,s
64=ni,dx,ch,bc,r,u,n, ,c,l,e,a,r,m,e,m,.,r,u,n, ,1,xc,l
(The disadvantage of this approach is that running ClearMem will also clear such things as the "Active Subset" in IBID. ORBIS, however, is more sophisticated and seems to keep track of "Stacks" with information on searches in your current session even when cleared from memory.)
If you prefer to load the above sequences onto phrase library keys:
1. Define the phrase inside the following brackets using the F2 key:
[see documentation file in NB format]
2. Hit Alt-F1, then your preferred key [a-z, 1-9], then Esc.
3. Hit Alt-F3, Ins, then that same key [a-z, 1-9].
4. Confirm that this sequence is present, hit Esc, then C, then X.
5. Hit F5 to save your phrase library as you normally would.
An alternative way to load the program onto a phrase library key is to add the following line to your NBSTART.INT file, replacing the "X" with the key [a-z, 1-9] of your choice:
[see documentation file in NB format]
You can then invoke the program with Alt + any of these keys. (Of course, this will take up more memory, which sort of defeats the purpose, does it not?)
REMEMBER that Alt+[a-z, 1-9] keys may change if you load another phrase library. The advantage of rewriting your NB.KBD keyboard file (see previous section) is that the change will be non-volatile.
Most of the codes in ClearMem come straight from the Orbis and Ibid help files, Copyright 1994 by N.B. Informatics, Incorporated. Thus and as a matter of course, ClearMem is freeware for all registered Nota Bene users, with gratitude to many faithful friends on Internet's NOTABENE forum.
Special thanks, again, to James D. Ernest for his work on FREEMEM.RUN, and to Tony Woozley his inestimably valuable guides for programming Nota Bene using XyWrite Programming Language (XPL). Tony also supplied the the hunch that allowed me to develop the "Pick textbase" feature. Also, J.P. Takala got some of us working on these problems and offered advice along the way.
All the usual disclaimers apply, to the effect that I am not in any way liable or responsible for unexpected data loss!
Your comments, reports of problems and suggested improvements are, however, welcome.
Gerald W. Schlabach
gws@bluffton.edu
23 November 1993 (version 1.0)
20 March 1995 (version 1.1)
3 September 1995 (version 2.0)
6 December 1995 (version 2.1)