The Cyberdog Way

Cyberdog is a collection of OpenDoc "parts" allowing access to information on the Internet. OpenDoc is a component architecture designed to utilize and encourage a "document-centric" approach to work. What this means is that you can focus on the content of your document, adding "parts" as needed without constraining your work to one application and its limitations. For more information, check Apple's OpenDoc Pages.

So, to use Cyberdog, open up a Notebook part. What's that? Well, it's something like this:

[notebook image] You can put whatever you want in there. URLs, Email addresses, files, ftp directories, breakfast cereals, newsgroups, newsgroup hierarchies, news servers...Okay, I was kidding about the breakfast cereals. These are all called "CyberItems". But, the real breakthrough here is that it's not just a collection of bookmarks. If you administer a website, you can have a Notebook category called "Website "in which there are URLs for the pages, a connection to the html directory so that you can ftp files back and forth, email addresses for contact people who should be notified about changes to the website...all in one category. I use one Notebook for email addresses, but you can mix and match cyberitems however you want.

OpenDoc uses memory in a different way than you might be used to. Cyberdog, for example, does not load web pages into the memory partition assigned to the Cyberdog application. Rather, memory in the system heap is used to hold the pages. This can lead to a large increase in the system heap size over the course of Internet travels, including web surfing and newsreading. Also, some versions of Cyberdog (the 2.0 beta 2, for example) experience memory leaks, and so not all memory that is supposed to get returned to the system heap does.

This may seem like a weird way to use memory, but it is becoming very trendy. Netscape Communicator beta versions and Internet Explorer 3.x do the same thing. Plus, they take up more memory for the application itself than does Cyberdog. This puts Cyberdog at least a little ahead in the game...

OS8 update: Under OS8, if you watch "About this Computer" while using Cyberdog, you'll notice most of the action is going on in the application heap, rather than the system heap. This is due to the fact that everything is now loaded into temporary memory (except for a modest bump to the system heap). This temporary memory is shown in the application heap, so if you do a lot of surfing, watch out for this heap getting pretty large.

Anyway...

While you have the Cyberdog application open, which you can do by activating any Cyberdog part, you have access to information on the Internet. So, you could double click the Cyberdog application icon, open a Notebook, or access a Cyberitem (which is just an OpenDoc reference to a website, mail tray, ftp directory, etc...you can even strew these willy-nilly across your Desktop), and there you are. Compare this with having to open up several different applications to access email, web pages, newsgroups. True, it will work, but not seamlessly.

Memory Issues

OpenDoc is a big thing. Really big. Entailing a lot of system overhead. Trying to use OpenDoc applications in low memory situations can be a little dicey. To improve things, you might try this method, courtesy of Paul Lindblad. Following this advice has made my Cyberdog experience much better.

YA Cyberdog Method to Crashlessness

Updated Sept 10, 1997.

Cyberdog/OpenDoc is a brilliant effort by Apple that makes the internet seamless on the Mac desktop-- today. Pronouncements (by the recently departed CEO Gilbert Amelio) pushed Java as the replacement for Cyberdog/OpenDoc as the reason for putting the latter's development on hold.

With Amelio gone and Hutchings Software continuing development of the OpenDoc Framework, hopes seem realistic that Apple will resume Cyberdog/OpenDoc in the future. John A. Vink, a software engineer at Apple, confirmed in early September that he and a small number of engineers are addressing bug fixes and enhancements.

Naysayers, including Apple's just departed leadership, have not understood the benefits of net-based OpenDoc component 'parts' versus the ponderous array of netscape's bloatware.

Better yet, Cyberdog/OpenDoc can be configured not to crash at all-- a clear imperative to stop using netscape and internet explorer. My trial-error isloation (of different memory settings and combinations including plug-ins) has cured sundry Cyberdog/OpenDoc crashes and freezes. Cyberdog/OpenDoc strategies to reduce crashing as described below has been confirmed successful by contributors to the newsgroup:

news://cyberdog.apple.com/cyberdog.general
[Editor's note: The referenced newsgroup is no longer at this URL. You may find this group at the new server:
news://news.cyberdog.org/cyberdog.general
Please update any outdated information you have.]

Cyberdog/OpenDoc strategies to reduce crashing altogether:

Apple said too little memory given OpenDoc crashes Cyberdog. Balancing Cyberdog and OpenDoc memory amounts cures crashes. Setting OpenDoc 1.2's cool new Setup control panel Default Document Memory is dependent on:

  1. The memory amount given to Cyberdog's minimum setting in the Finder's "Get Info" pane. Too little OpenDoc default memory crashes Cyberdog. Plug-in use demands a Cyberdog application threshold of 2500 to an upper limit of 4000. Try setting the minimum at 2560 for later use with Plug-ins. Add 256-512K for the Cyberdog preferred memory.
  2. System RAM size: (Set OpenDoc memory from 1000-2000 for 32MB RAM; 2000-4000 for 40 MB RAM; and so on.)

    [odsetup image]

OpenDoc Setup control panel's Launch Options, when set to 'Start OpenDoc at system startup' and 'Stop OpenDoc at system shutdown' adds a healthy factor of stability by preventing OpenDoc from loading and unloading RAM. The system can not 'recycle' RAM fragmentation (resulting from loading and unloading) to use for other applications. Memory loss is minimized by curtailing RAM fragmentation after startup and before shutdown.

Unless you have trouble opening an OpenDoc document you do not need to adjust the 'Document Preferred Size' under Cyberdog:File:Document Info:Size.

Cyberdog 2.0's low memory warnings eloquently allows adequate time you need to gracefully save and quit OpenDoc windows without bringing the system down. Close documents when the Finder's 'About this computer' pane's 'Largest Unused Block' hits low values (2 to 4 MB.)

Achieve long-term stability:

System configuration tested:

Others have noticed some instability using VM under Mac OS 8. My 6100/84, 256K L2 cache, 40 MB RAM, defaulted DiskCache, defaulted other Memory Control Panel settings, save a minimum VM on (1MB plus actual installed physical RAM), causes Cyberdog to use File Mapping only (which reduces Cyberdog's RAM footprint.) Under minimum VM, Cyberdog releases memory and shows good stability. Other applications may want to run with VM off.

Using Mac OS 8, my 144 Supra modem connection Custom Script blisters page downloads at speed approaching ISDN. OT/PPP 1.0.1, OT 1.2, OD 1.2.1, CD 2.0, Finder heap defaulted to 912, Speech Recognition 1.5 and a lot of speakable Applescripting together make the foundation of a successful Cyberdog/OpenDoc experience.

For stability on a 32MB system, try:

Some plug-ins don't crash:

Achieving a crash-less state is a great testimonial to the genius of the Cyberdog/OpenDoc team!

© J. Paul Lindblad 1997. All rights reserved.

[dog image] Back to Eric's Cyberdog Page.