These pop-up programs are referred to as: memory-resident software or terminate-and-stay-resident programs. (In this article, we'll refer to them as TSRs.)

TSRs are programs which stay in your computer's random access memory, or RAM. RAM is the temporary memory inside your computer. You see, most IBM and IBM-compatible PCs can't load two programs into memory at the same time. In other words, DOS won't let users simultaneously load two traditional programs, like Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft Word. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet, while Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Word is a word processing program. Spreadsheets calculate numbers and word processing programs let users create documents.) But unlike regular programs, TSRs can run while you're working in almost any application.


Let's Talk TSR

Before you understand how TSRs work, you need to know a few things about the disk operating system, or DOS. DOS, the most popular operating system for IBM and IBM-compatible computers, can recognize 640 kilobytes of memory. (An operating system controls all of your PC's functions.) Memory is measured in small increments called bytes, and approximately 1,000 bytes equals one kilobyte (KB). This 640KB that DOS can recognize is often referred to as conventional memory, DOS memory or the DOS barrier, as this is all the memory DOS alone can use for DOS applications. DOS applications include word processing, spreadsheets and other programs that run in the DOS environment.

When you open a word processing application, for example, DOS gives the program as much memory as it needs. So the word processor you've loaded into RAM now monopolizes your memory. But once you exit the application, DOS quickly takes back the memory so you can use it for the next program. DOS works in this simple one-at-a-time manner because it was created to run only one program at a time. (What a simpleton!)

However, for many users, it's very convenient to be able to access more than one program at a time, especially programs that let you record addresses or access pop-up calculators and other tools. This is where TSRs come into play. (Think of using a TSR as similar to the way you might pause to jot down an appointment on your calendar while you finish calculating expenses for a business presentation.)

When you call up a TSR, the program you're working on is temporarily suspended. For example, if you're using a TSR with a pop-up dictionary, you'd hit a hotkey combination like CTRL-D to access the dictionary. (Each TSR has its own combination of keys you press in order to activate it. In this case, the hotkey combination is achieved by pressing the CTRL and D keys at the same time.) This will cause the dictionary to suddenly pop up on your screen, temporarily suspending your word processing program. When you're finished using the dictionary, just hit the ESCAPE key and the TSR will disappear. (But it's still there in RAM, waiting for you to call it up again.) You'll find yourself back in the word processing program, right where you left off. With a TSR, you eliminate the lengthy process of exiting one program to open another and so on.


Life As A TSR

Now, let's take a quick look at how TSRs work.

Your TSR watches every incoming keystroke for its special hotkey combination. When it receives this combination, the TSR magically appears on your screen. (TSRs are kind of like people waiting for the appropriate bus to come along to take them where they need to go. The TSR watches for the hotkey combination, just like people watch for the right bus. When it sees the hotkey combination, the TSR pops up on the screen.)

Some users may have four or five TSRs loaded on their computer. The TSR you load into RAM last has priority, so it checks the incoming keystrokes first. If this TSR recognizes a hotkey combination, it loads itself, and if not, it passes the keystrokes to the next TSR. Finally, after all the TSRs have had their turn, the keystrokes are passed to DOS.

Most people set up their PC systems to load TSRs into RAM automatically whenever they start up their computer. In order to do this, you must place a command in your Autoexec.bat, which is a special DOS file. Whenever you turn on your computer, DOS looks to the Autoexec.bat file to tell it what to do, what programs to start up right away and more. If you decide you don't want to bother with the Autoexec.bat, you're in luck. Most TSR programs automatically modify this file for you as you install them. This way, your TSRs will automatically load themselves into memory when you start up your computer.

In order to load a TSR into memory (without putting a special command in your Autoexec.bat file), users usually just have to get into the TSR's directory. (The directory is what holds all the program's files and instructions. These files and directories were loaded onto your PC when you installed the TSR software.) After you've loaded your TSR into RAM, you can go about your business. Your TSR will be waiting in RAM for you to press its special hotkey combination.


Managers That Pop To It

By now you're probably wondering exactly where to find these mysterious toaster-like programs. Well, look no further. TSRs are often found in contact management software and personal information managers (PIMS). Contact management software (sometimes called contact managers) helps salespeople and marketing executives maintain lists of names, addresses, telephone numbers, contact dates and sales activities. Using their PC keyboard, users type in this information, which is then saved by the computer. Contact managers are actually preconfigured databases with records for inputting information on your sales contacts. A database is a program for organizing and storing data.

Once data is entered, users can search through their sales information using a company name, a contact's last name, a zip code or some other type of criteria. Since contact managers are usually TSR programs, users can activate them while working in just about any application.

Action Plus version 5.0 by Action Plus Software is an example of a TSR contact manager. Action Plus has many features for storing sales and inventory information, as well as a calendar, daily planner, pop-up calculator and word processor (for generating reports and other documents). Personal information managers (PIMs) are very similar to contact managers, except PIMs are general-purpose programs. They're meant for the average person who wants to organize information, like addresses and phone numbers, not necessarily sales activities. PIMs act much like an electronic version of your trusty Rolodex.

Sidekick version 2.0, a personal information manager by Borland International Corp., is an example of a PIM. Sidekick provides five applications: a time planner, address book, communications tool, notepad and calculator. (The communications tool is for keeping track of telephone calls, while the address book is for written communication.) Users access these applications by selecting them from a pop-up menu.


Popping Around A Network

Local-area network versions of TSRs are also available. The term local-area network (LAN) refers to a group of connected computers that share information and often share a single printer. Sidekick and Action Plus, which we mentioned earlier, provide network support for users so they can share scheduling information and other data.

Another TSR, created especially for LANs, is Futurus Team for DOS (previously Right Hand Man), by Futurus Corp. Futurus Team For Dos computerizes a company's day-to-day office activities. It includes electronic phone messaging, a calendar, notepads and to-do lists. It also provides electronic mail. Electronic mail, or E-mail, allows users to send electronic messages to other people on the network. These electronic memos can be sent to the entire company or to specific individuals. (Action Plus also features electronic mail.)

Futurus Team's other accessories are simply electronic versions of the items on your desktop. Once again, these features are TSRs, which means you can access them while working in just about any application.

Futurus also offers Futurus Team for Windows, which is for LANs using the Windows environment. Microsoft Windows is a graphical user interface program by Microsoft Corp. You see, Windows sits on top of DOS, creating a graphical environment where users complete tasks by selecting small symbols with a mouse. A mouse is a handheld pointing device you slide along a desktop. Windows is basically meant to make your computer seem more user-friendly.


No Longer Spellbound

While TSRs help you keep track of addresses and appointments, you'll also find TSR programs with pop-up tools for looking up words, checking grammar and more.

System Compatibility Corp.'s The Writer's Toolkit is a special dictionary and grammar checker with a total of seven pop-up word processing aids, including a quote book and thesaurus. These TSRs can be called up while you're working in any word processing program or from Toolkit's grammar checker. The grammar checker can serve as a standalone program you can access from the DOS prompt. (The DOS prompt looks something like this: C>.)

You can call up Toolkit's menu while inside any word processing document. Type the ALT and M keys at the same time and the menu will pop up, allowing you to select from the list of tools. Both a Windows version and network version of The Writer's Toolkit are available.

Systems Compatibility also offers a TSR for importing data between programs. With Outside In, you can directly import (or transfer) data from more than 60 word processing, spreadsheet and database programs. Here again, TSRs can save you time and trouble. Outside In gives you a simple way for placing data from one program into another.

For example, you can pop up Outside In from within a word processor. Next, select the spreadsheet or other file you wish to transfer from the pop-up directory, open the file, and highlight the portion you wish to move. (This information is highlighted using the keyboard's cursor keys.) By pressing the INSERT key, the highlighted data is immediately transferred into your word processing application.


A TSR You Can See Through

So far, we've discussed TSRs that help you organize your life and improve your work. But TSRs can do other things, too, like connect a pair of PCs. For example, DeskLink release 2 by Traveling Software Inc., allows you to share files between two PCs connected with about 100 feet of telephone wire. DeskLink makes two PCs work like a small LAN, enabling them to transfer information back and forth and share a printer. But TSRs found in programs like DeskLink are a little different than the ones we've talked about so far. These TSR programs are sometimes categorized as transparent TSRs because they perform their primary activities in the background, unseen by the user. Transparent TSRs can be activated by events, like sending information to a printer, as well as by hotkey combinations.

Transparent TSRs may not have an interface because the activity they perform doesn't require one. For example, Sidekick relies completely on its pop-up interface. Once you clear this interface from the screen, Sidekick just sits there waiting to be popped up again. But DeskLink's pop-up interface doesn't really have anything to do with its primary activity: making a connection between two PCs. DeskLink's pop-up interface is for functions like setting the speed at which you'll be transferring information over the cable, or selecting a printer to connect with. The interface is also used for accessing DeskLink's Talk-Box function, allowing PC users to type messages back and forth.

Another example of a transparent TSR is a program used with a mouse. In order to use a mouse, you must load a transparent TSR, which doesn't have an interface. This invisible program basically allows your applications to work with your mouse.


RAM Cram: Definition And Cure

Though TSRs are handy, they can have their drawbacks when it comes to memory. As TSRs hang out in memory, waiting for their hotkey combinations, they reduce the amount of RAM available for your other programs. Loading too many TSRs can actually prevent you from running your applications, causing a condition called RAM cram. If you see a message like ``insufficient memory'' when you try to open a program like Microsoft Word, your TSRs are probably taking up too much of that 640KB of DOS memory. So, if you've become a TSR-aholic, you might need to take a few precautions.

To avoid RAM cram, you can install a TSR manager onto your computer. TSR managers are special programs that swap TSRs in and out of expanded memory. Expanded memory is basically a term describing a type of memory that exists beyond the 640KB DOS barrier. (We'll talk more about expanded memory in a minute.)

Though we've been talking about DOS's 640KB of memory, your computer may very likely have two megabytes of memory or more. (One megabyte, or MB, equals approximately one million bytes.) This memory over 640KB is usually divided into extended, expanded and reserved memory. Reserved memory (sometimes called upper memory) is the 384KB of memory right above the 640KB of conventional or DOS memory. For the purposes of this article, we won't go into specifics on extended memory. (See ``What Is Memory Management Software?'' in the November issue of PC Novice for more information.)

Conventional RAM cannot address this 384KB area of reserved memory as it's reserved for access by special system functions. Now, if you add 640KB and 384KB you'll come up with 1,024KB, which is often rounded to 1MB. A type of memory beyond this 1MB is referred to as expanded memory, and you need an expanded memory manager to use it (or load TSRs into it). An expanded memory manager is just a software program. And some expanded memory managers allow you to load programs into the 384KB of reserved memory. DOS version 5.0 features an expanded memory manager for loading some programs into reserved memory.

You'll also find other types of memory managers, like a TSR manager, which we mentioned before. In most cases, memory managers will enable you to load your TSRs into reserved or expanded memory and help you avoid RAM cram.

As you can see, memory is a very complicated issue, so don't worry if you don't understand the specifics. The important thing to understand from all of this is that TSR managers help free up your 640KB of DOS memory. This way, you should have all the room you need to run your applications and banish RAM cram from your PC. Just remember, the idea is to keep as much of that 640KB open as possible.


The Doctor Is In

PopDrop Plus is a TSR management program by BLOC Publishing Corp. Ben Nemer, in technical support for PopDrop Plus, says the program enables users to effectively manage their TSRs. If you have two or more TSR programs, he says he suggests using PopDrop Plus or some other type of memory management program.

With PopDrop Plus, you can load TSRs into expanded memory. Usually, programs must be written specifically to use expanded memory, but PopDrop Plus is able to load most TSRs here regardless. Nemer says that PopDrop Plus also removes your TSRs from RAM. TSRs must be removed in a last-in, first-out basis, he says. In other words, the TSR you loaded into memory last should be the first one to go. By not following this pattern, you would leave a ``hole'' in your memory. If you use PopDrop Plus, you don't have to worry about how you remove your TSRs from RAM because the program does it for you.

Also, PopDrop Plus only takes up 27KB of RAM. This is considerably less when you look at how much of that 640KB your TSRs would take up without the program. (See Figure 1.)

Joe Keslin, vice president of software engineering at Systems Compatibility, says users should compare the amount of memory the TSR manager takes up compared to the amount of memory the TSRs would use by themselves.

``Almost always, even if you only have one TSR, a TSR manager will be valuable,'' he says.

Say you have a large 80KB TSR. Your TSR manager can move the entire TSR into expanded memory, and then put only itself (a small TSR) into DOS memory, Keslin says.


When It Comes To Windows

Now that you understand how TSRs work and what they're used for, you should also know that TSRs are mainly for the DOS world. If you're using Windows on your IBM or IBM-compatible PC, you can't use TSRs unless they're specifically written for Windows.

This means that if you're using a program like WordPerfect for Windows, you can't use a regular TSR unless it's written specifically for Windows. And why can't Windows recognize regular TSRs? As you'll recall, Windows uses symbols or graphics to carry out tasks. But most TSRs are character-based, like DOS.

Well, that about wraps up the wonderful world of TSRs. You'll find that TSRs can be valuable time-savers. If you take a few precautions as we mentioned earlier, your PC and TSRs will live in perfect harmony. You may discover that these pop-up programs give you a new appreciation for your old friend, the toaster!

by Gretchen Boehr

Action Plus
Action Plus Software
935 East 7220 South
Suite D-108
Salt Lake City, UT 84047-2393
(801) 255-0600

Sidekick
Borland International Corp.
10 Victor Square
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(800) 331-0877

Writer's Toolkit and Outside In
Systems Compatibility Corp.
401 North Wabash
Suite 600
Chicago, IL 60611
(800) 333-1395

Futurus Team for DOS and Futurus Team for Windows
Futurus Corp.
211 Perimeter Center Parkway
Suite 910
Atlanta, GA 30346
(800) 327-8296

DeskLink
Traveling Software Inc.
18702 North Creek Parkway
Bothell, WA 98011
(800) 343-8080

PopDrop Plus
BLOC Publishing Corp.
800 Douglas Entrance
Executive Tower
Suite 765
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(800) 677-2562