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The Last Word 3.0 Reference Manual
3-21
available. Each bank has the same 16K capacity and its own set of place markers and
its own filename. You can cut and paste between banks with ease, and by keeping all
the files of a large document in separate banks and by using the include bank print
commands from the main file, you can keep track of pagination as if you were editing a
single, contiguous file.
If your Atari XL/XE has no extended RAM (or you chose not to use extended memory),
you’ll only have one 16K text bank and the paste, macro, and disk directory buffers will
all be very small (only about 1K each).
3.8 HANDLING LARGE FILES
Although the largest text buffer LW can provide is around 19K when using a machine
with extended memory (as well additional banks which are fixed at 16K in size), it’s still
possible to handle much larger files by splitting them across banks. Text banks can
therefore hold separate files, different segments of the same large file, or a mixture
thereof. Even if you’re using a machine with no extended memory and only one 16K
bank, it’s still possible to edit larger files.
When you load a file into a text bank, the message “Linked Load” will display if the file
didn’t fit completely into memory. The buffer will contain as much of the file as would
fit, together with 255 bytes of free space for editing (Note: because of the way LW
works, any file longer than the total buffer size minus 255 bytes will be classed as a
“Linked Load”, even if the file would otherwise have fit into the buffer).
To protect against accidental obliteration of the original file on disk when only the first
segment has been loaded, linked segments will not “Auto” save with <CTRL+S>.
Instead, <CTRL+S> ALWAYS brings up the “Save As” prompt, as does
<SHIFT+CTRL+S>. Thus the user will always be warned before overwriting an existing
file. Beyond that, it’s up to the user to ensure that segments are saved in the correct
order.
So – having loaded the first part of a segmented file, we can proceed in one of two
ways:
1. Edit the first segment, save it under a new name, then repeat the process until
all segments of the original file have been loaded, edited, and appended to a
new file.
2. Load all segments of the original file into separate banks, edit them
simultaneously, then save the segments in order, either to a new file or
overwriting the original.
In either case, the procedure for LOADING the second and subsequent segments of a
linked file is to follow the filename with the “/C” switch (without quotes). For example:
Load>REPORT.DOC/C
This simply loads the next segment of the file, providing (obviously) that the filename
given is always that of the original file. The name of the “Last File Loaded” can be
obtained on the input line with <CTRL+L>, which is useful shortcut when loading
successive segments of the same file. The final segment of a file, when loaded, will not
display the “Linked Load” message and thereafter the “/C” switch will simply cause an
end of file error.