Question concerning: FinalGROM & Multiplan (and Classic 99)

[Omega-TI]

I've seen examples where people have taken a 'snapshot' of a programs current memory contents from within Classic 99 and made a 'restore cartridge' image out of it. With this in mind, I'm wondering why no one has done this with the 80 column version of Multiplan.

 

Sure, there is a Multiplan loader cartridge BIN, but when you use it, you still have to load more stuff from diskette. Why not just dispense with all the time consuming B.S. and go directly to the spot where it's ready for use... or, am I ignorantly missing something that makes it impossible?

 

[blackbox]

A consideration is that at no time is all of Multiplan loaded into memory, and using different functions will bring in code from the Multiplan disk as required- this from the manual:

"

Several of Multiplan's functions rely on the Multiplan program diskette being immediately accessible. If
the program diskette is not in the drive when it is needed, Multiplan tells you "Press Y to retry access to
MP" — meaning that it could not find the file it needs. You would need to install the program disk before
continuing. With two drives, you can leave the program diskette in one drive and use the other drive for
saving and loading files. Many commands do not involve the diskette, but on those that do, it is best to
have the Multiplan diskette instantly accessible.
"

 

regards Stephen

[Asmusr]

I don't see why it shouldn't work for reducing load time as long as you also "have the Multiplan diskette instantly accessible". You can easily try it out using Classic99's cartridge maker.

[Tursi]

I don't run Multiplan, but doesn't it contain several programs, or is it truly just one executable loaded from disk?

 

If so, you could try the cartridge maker. But if not, you'd have to hack it to read from ROM instead of disk. Doable, but takes time.

 

Easy way to tell - pop up the debug screen, and start using it. If it never accesses the disk after that first load, it's a good candidate for the simple cart. But it's not magic, you still have to figure out what memory to save and what address to start running at.