Tandy 1000 MS-DOS Reference Manual page 347

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Appendix B / Configuring Thur System
BREAK
BREAK
[switch]
Sets the
I
GIRL
I
W
check. Switch can be ON or OFF.
Normally, MS-DOS checks for
[GIRL
I
W
only while writing to the
screen or printer, reading from the keyboard, or performing
asynchronous communications. Therefore, you cannot stop execu-
tion of a program unless it is performing one of those functions.
Setting BREAK to ON lets you extend the I
GIRL
I
W
check to
other functions, such as disk reads and writes. Setting BREAK
to OFF re-establishes the system default (OFF).
Example:
break=on
extends the
I
GTRL
I
W
check.
BUFFERS
BUFFERS
=
number
Lets you set the number of disk buffers that MS-DOS allocates
in memory at the time you start the system.
A disk buffer is a block of memory in which MS-DOS temporar-
ily stores data during disk input/output operations whenever the
amount of data read or written is not an exact multiple of the
sector size. Buffers are 512 bytes long, and the default number of
buffers is two.
Increasing the number of buffers can increase the speed of oper-
ations, as data still resident in the buffers can be read without
additional disk drive access. (The greater the number of buffers,
the greater the block of data available in memory.) If you cl'eate
many subdirectories, you can increase efficiency by using a num-
ber in the range 20 to 30. For application programs such as word
processors, you might find that a number in the range 10 to 20
provides the best performance. Experiment to find the ideal num-
ber to use, or consult your application program manual for the
requirements of a specific program. The maximum number of
buffers allowed is 99.
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