Microsoft compiler memory usage

[John Chang]

Does anyone know what the MSC compiler (ver 5.0) uses the near and far
heaps for?  

The problem: 
	I'm getting "Out of near heap space" and "Out of far heap
space" errors during my compiles.  My individual source files are not
that big (max 25 K), although I do run nested makes, and have one large (~60K)
include file in just about every file (Microsoft Window's windows.h).
I'm using Ndmake 5.0; Microsoft's make just doesn't make it.  :-)

My environment:
	I have 640 K in a Compaq 386, but only 470K after network
drivers and TSR's are loaded.  The 386 has lots of extended memory.
386-to-the-max can move the TSR's out, but the overhead of the program
is nearly equal to the savings in memory.  The network drivers eat up
~100K, and can't be moved out of lower memory.  Also, 386-to-the-max
conflicts with other 386 programs like Windows 386, or the Compaq
memory cache, or some of the new debuggers that relocate themselves in
extended memory.

	I don't think I can expand my DOS memory above 640K by using
segment A000.

Some observations:
	It seems the near heap is used for a symbol table, and parse tree,
since I can lessen the 'near heap space' problem by hand copying
declarations from include files, and writing shorter expressions.

I can increase the far heap size by removing my network drivers, but
I'd like to find a more elegant solution than rebooting every time I
get the error.  Also, the problem is flaky: sometimes I can rerun my make,
and get the compiler to accept a file it just rejected.

Suggestions:
	Perhaps using 'appropriate' values of stack size with exemod would be
the answer??  I realize that I'm asking about tweaking the compiler
so that I can squeeze just a little more memory out of it.  But I'd also
like to know what I can do to the source or to my environment to minimize
my inconvenience.

Please don't suggest that I switch compilers to brand X, unless that
brand supports Windows.  When is MS coming out with a compiler that
uses extended/expanded memory?  Does the OS/2 development environment
have such a tool already?


-- 
John Chang		{ ...harvard!mit-eddie,...mirror}!premise!chang
Premise, Inc.             chang at premise.zone1.com   (617) 225-0422
3 Cambridge Center	  
Cambridge, MA 02142	When you have the advantage, get the money out.