Joe

I doubt that it's a 98SE-peculiar problem, although there are differences from version to version. The DT is basically a DOS program, and it's typically a problem for them to be "leaky."

Run in a "pure DOS" environment, some programs "lock up" fairly quickly - and some permit what Windows would consider "memory violations" and just write over "old-in-use memory and keep running. The problem is that memory (RAM) must be "allocated" for anything that's get done, and must be "released" when the process is finished. Failure to release results in a steady "leakage" that reduces available memory.

Most Windows operating systems impose a "security layer" between DOS (or any) programs and the actual hardware RAM and disks. This can sometimes help - but more often hinders the release of memory that's already been used. Where DOS can just charge ahead with an "illegal" operation, Windows may refuse to turn loose until it's asked nicely.

I don't think 98SE is any worse about this than other "near" versions.

I'm speculating on what's happening here, since I haven't used the DT on my own machine for several years. (I have the Oct96 version.)

Actually, if you open the '96 .ask file in Word - as text only, and do about 400,000 selected global character replacements to get rid of the messy characters, you get a fairly readable plain text document of only about 2,500 pages - which Word can search quite nicely, if a little slowly, as long as you save often and reboot occasionally. (T.I.C.B.G.)

John