From: John Wilkins <john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au>
Subject: Re: HELP- large doc won't open on Mac FM
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A6CD182609012434@manager.ccc.monash.edu.au>
X-Xxdate: Fri, 4 Sep 92 21:41:58 GMT
Organization: Monash University, Melbourne Australia
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 03:41:18 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.002052.4323@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> I wrote:
>It's a 3.2Mb file I couldn't split. I need to be able to open it
>urgently, if only to save it as a MIF and edit that. The error is
>1110:1116, the details are: Mac IIci with 20Mb RAM, FM 3.1i allocated
>14,000k, system 7 with tuneup 1.1.1. Any ideas?

Actually, the error was 1110:1113, and Christopher Butler of Frame (who
responded immediately via email to Comments@Frame; thank you, Chris)
replied:

"The error message you are getting happens when, during a read, FrameMaker
cannot allocate memory for the data structures it is trying to create.
FrameMaker then aborts the process gives you this error message.

"The normal amount of RAM a FrameMaker document takes up (not counting
internal graphics) has an empircal upper bound of 1.5*FileSize. Usually,
for plain text files, this is a little less.

"I'm somewhat at a loss to explain why FrameMaker, with 14Meg of
Multifinder
heap,  [JW: I allocated 14000k in an attempt to deal with the problem]
can't open a 3292k file. In fact, you should be able to open it in
less than 6 Meg (there's about 800K overhead for CODE resources in the
heap).

"I've checked with all Techsupport and engineering; we have not heard of
a problem like this before."

So, I am a pioneer in some ways, after all. ;-)

His suggested solutions were:

"Possibilities (some of which you don't want to hear), are:
"1. System has been damaged. Clues to this would be if Disk First Aid
   reports problems on your disk. You should reinstall your system
software
   into a *new* system folder, run with vanilla fonts and no inits,
   and try again. You can do this by separating you system and finder
   files, and renaming your system folder to by something like "Old
   System" before running the Apple installer.
"2. The FrameMaker document was damaged while in memory, and you saved
   the damaged version to disk (getting past our safety checks). The
damaged
   data structure, when being read in, asks for too much memory, causing
   the error. In this case, the best chance for repair is getting the 
   file to us.
"3. (Long Shot) Remove the fast text cache file and FrameMaker Prefs
   file in your system folder.
"4. (Long Shot) Use Virtual memory to increase the size of the FrameMaker
   heap even beyond 14Meg."

I ruled out 1 (it occurred on another quite different machine), 3 and 4,
so it looks like 2. Since this file was created by cutting and pasting
from another document, the text of which included many markers and
variables, this is the most likely answer.

MORAL: avoid cut & paste with complex documents, and keep your documents
small. (Although this *is* on a Mac, after all -- C&P ought to be the
most primitive and reliable functions of any Mac software, and if
software can create a file, it ought to be able to open it later. Frame
are investigating, and I have hopes for later versions.)

Hope this is interesting or helpful to others.

John Wilkins
Manager, Publishing & Advertising
Monash University, Melbourne Australia
Internet: john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au
Tel: (+613) 573 2099

"Nature is profligate in variety but niggardly in innovation"
Charles Darwin, Origin of Species
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame