On Mon, 2026-02-02 at 07:24 -0800, [email protected] wrote: > > Really! That would never have crossed my mind. Makes me wonder how > > the text > > editor in CP/M handles large files. Large files in the context of > > this > > conversation. You don't think the 5k upgrade would yield much > > difference? > >
My Kaypro (runs CP/M 2.2) handles large files quite slowly but not due to memory; that is due to slow operation of the 5.25inch floppy disk. The Z80 CPU in that machine runs at 4 MHz. The only text editor that I'm aware of that allows editing of files larger than free memory is WordStar; it writes out pieces of the document (or text file) to disk to let you focus on the "current" page. That causes it to slow down quite a bit. There are several text editors around that do not do this, but keep the entire document in memory. That makes the editor lightning fast but restricts you to document size no larger than free memory (on a 64K machine, probably around 50K or so). Of course, when you needed to save that document to the floppy disk, you may as well get you a cup of coffee while you waited for that to complete LOL I have not tried it on REXCPM but I'm quite sure we will see the same results. REXCPM likely has better I/O performance so I think that would make it faster. Regards, Bert
