The SYSGEN configuration utility/Comet Systems Options

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[COMET SYSTEM OPTIONS]

Minimum Requirements:

This group is required. See below for specific requirements.

Refer to the minimal INI file to see the minimum requirements to configure Comet.

The COMET SYSTEM OPTIONS group contains information about the Comet system or a particular node, including the number and range of partitions and other parameters that set various options throughout the system.

The following segment titles are required:

• First Partition = first-partition;

• 1. of Partitions = number-of-partitions;

• First Terminal = first-terminal;

• 1. of Terminals = number-of-terminals;

The following segment titles are optional:

• Fast Write Option = YES|NO;

• Ignore Error 44 = YES|NO;

• Background Priority = priority;

• European Numbers = YES|NO;

• Sliding Century = nn;

• Sliding Year = nn;

• Date Mode = MMDDYYYY;

• Clock Name = CL1;

• 1. of File Descriptors = nnn;

The following segment title is for diagnostic testing purposes only:

• Click on Task Break = YES|NO;

The following segment titles are obsolete. They are listed here in order to document legacy Comet configurations:

• Time Slice Interval = time-slice-interval;

• Multi-User Board Address = address;

• Single User Plug Port # = port-number;

• Enable LPT1 Interrupts = YES|NO;

• Enable LPT2 Interrupts = YES|NO;

• All Partitions Exp/Mem = YES|NO;

• Invoke Handle Banking = YES|NO;

For example:

[COMET SYSTEM OPTIONS]
First Partition          = P00;
# of Partitions          = 10;
First Terminal           = T00;
# of Terminals           = 3;
Fast Write Option        = NO;
Ignore Error 44          = NO;
Background Priority      = 5;
European Numbers         = NO;
Clock Name               = CL1;
# of File Descriptors    = 120;
Sliding Century          = 19;
Sliding Year             = 40;
Date Mode                = MMDDYYYY;  U.S. date mode

Segment Titles

Note:
Previous releases of Comet required the user to map terminals, partitions, and printers via NETCFIG when installed on a network.

A unique terminal/partition name designation was desired. Under QCFIG and earlier releases of SYSGEN, the first console session was set to T00/P00, the second to T01/P01, and so forth.

Now the first terminal/partition name does not have to start with T00/P00 and you can enter terminals and partitions within a range. You must take great care in setting the first four fields in the COMET SYSTEM OPTIONS group:

       First Partition =
       # of Partitions =
       First Terminal =
       # of Terminals =

First Partition = first-partition;Required. The name of the first partition on this node.

Note: The first-partition parameter should be set to the actual starting partition.
SYSGEN automatically sets a "begin" and "end" range when this field is loaded.
This range is compared to the console/partition entries under CONSOLE SESSION OPTIONS and the terminal/partition entries under the TERMINALS group.
If the console/partition or terminal/partition entry is outside the begin/end range above, an error is produced and the CFG file(s) will not be changed.

Example:

[COMET SYSTEM OPTIONS]
First Partition = = T20;
# of partitions = 5;
First Terminal = T20;
# of Terminals  = 4;
.
[CONSOLE SESSION OPTIONS]
Session = T00,P00,5 ,6F,70,66,6F,6F;
Session = T01,P01,5, 1F,70,11,1F,1F; 
.
[TERMINALS] 
Terminal = T30,P30,4 ,1,2,00; 
Terminal = T31,P31,4 ,1,2,01; 
Terminal = T32,P32,4 ,1,2,02; 

The above sample would generate errors because the console session and partition names would be outside the terminal range of T20 through T23 and partition range of P20 through P24. The same is also true for the terminal names. An addition problem is the "# of terminals" was set at 4, yet 5 Console/Terminal sessions are being defined.

1. of Partitions = number-of-partitions;Required.
   

The number of partitions, which includes all terminals, logical terminal sessions and background partitions. Comet2000 supports up to 999 partitions, while earlier versions of Comet (e.g., Comet98, Comet 504) support up to 99 partitions.

First Terminal = first-terminal;Required.
The first terminal device name on this node.

1. of Terminals = number-of-terminals;Required.
   

The number of console sessions (local and remote).

Note: If the # of partitions is equal to the # of terminals, all of the partitions are “foreground partitions.” However, if there are more partitions than terminals, the surplus partitions are “background partitions.”

Fast Write Option = YES|NO;Optional.

NO means that disk writes will be directly written to disk.
YES means that disk writes will be buffered and not immediately written to disk. This option dramatically increased the speed of the system at the expense of the integrity of the file system should an interruption occur.

Ignore Error 44 = YES|NO;Optional
. Comet issues error 44 if a write occurs with a format that exceeds the actual size of the file record length.
This option offers a protection measure, but may be overridden for testing purposes.

YES means to ignore all error 44's.
NO means to acknowledge all error 44's.

Background Priority = priority;Optional. Enter the default priority setting (0 through 255) for all background partitions.
The priority setting determines the relative speed of execution to other users on the system. (0 is fastest, 255 slowest).

European Numbers = YES|NO;Optional
. Comet displays numeric fields in European format if this field is set to YES. Otherwise, set it as NO.

Clock Name = CL1;Optional
. Normally, the clock device name is CL1. If, for whatever reason, an alternate clock name is desired, such as CLX, then it can be used.
The first character of clock device name must begin with the letter "C".

1. of File Descriptors = nnn;Optional
   

This segment title specifies the number of file descriptors that will be available when Comet is running.
The file descriptor table keeps track of all files that are open at the same time. Enter 120 for most systems.

Sliding Century = nn; Sliding Year = nn;Optional
. This is used by the DATETONUM function to determine in which century a MMDDYY date falls. If the YY is less than the sliding year, then the century will be incremented by one.

Date Mode = MMDDYYYY;Optional Use Date Mode to eliminate conflict with worldwide date formats. Choose from four formats:

MMDDYYYY                          United States
DDMMYYYY                          English (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK)
YYYYMMDD                          European (Germany, France, Italy, etc.)
YYYYDDMM                          Sweden

Click on Task Break = YES|NO;For diagnostic testing purposes only.
YES option invokes an audible click every time the Comet scheduler takes a task break.
It is a way to hear just how fast users are task switching.<br/p? Long pauses with no clicks indicate that a single user is "hogging the system" (i.e., taking no task breaks).

NO disables the clicking sound on task breaks.

Time Slice Interval = time-slice-interval;Obsolete
The number of time intervals (1/18th second) before a task break will be taken within a task.

Multi-User Board Address = address;Obsolete.
Configures the starting memory address of the multi-user board. According to a DOS standard, a specific range of memory addresses on all PC's is reserved for "adapter memory". The address range is A000 through FFFF (in hex).

This window in memory actually represents memory that is on the multi-user board. The Comet window is 8K; its starting address must be between B000 and E7FF.

Other devices on your Comet PC may also use memory in the same range described above. Therefore, you must ensure that the starting address chosen for the multi-user board does not conflict with other devices (software and hardware) within your PC system.

The letters A through G represent specific memory addresses. The following table shows how each letter maps to a specific starting memory address.

A - B000 C - C000 E - D000 G - E000

B - B800 D - C800 F - D800

Single User Plug Port # = port-number;Obsolete.
Indicates which parallel port to which the single user plug is attached (1=LPT1, 2=LPT2).

Enable LPT1 interrupts = YES|NO; Enable LPT2 interrupts = YES|NO;Obsolete.
Used to enable or disable printer interrupts under Comet. Interrupts should be enabled only if the printer I/O supports it.

All Partitions Exp/Mem = YES|NO;Obsolete.
Normally, approx. 8 partitions can be set up within base memory. More than 8, you'll need an expanded memory manager. If a DOS application exists that must use base memory, setting this option to YES will cause all Comet partitions to use expanded memory, thus freeing up base memory for the DOS application.

Invoke Handle Banking = YES|NO;Obsolete.
This option is valid only on Comet for DOS systems. (i.e., cos.exe) Within DOS, only 255 file descriptors can be declared, thus only 255 files can be open at any one time. Keyed files and directories, within Comet, each require two DOS file descriptors when opened. Since other DOS programs may need some DOS file descriptors, we essentially limit the Comet user to 240 DOS files or 120 Comet files. For some multi-user Comet systems, 120 is simply to low. The Invoke Handle Banking option tricks DOS into thinking it has many more file handles to work with. Thus you could set the Number of File descriptors above to 500 say, then you would answer YES to the Invoke Handle Banking option and your problem of too few file handles is solved.

A YES response will bank DOS file handles, thus increasing the maximum number of file handles to 1,024. Please remember that a DOS file descriptor is NOT required when accessing "networked" disc drives, thus this option has no effect on networked drives. As a side note, this option is only valid on Comet for DOS installations. Comet98 ignores this option.