jabusch@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (07/15/86)
According to the documentation, you can get Windows to
recognize and use the extra memory > 640k in only one way, due to
the limitations of DOS, which Windows runs under. The way to use
it is to use the program RAMDISK.SYS, which comes on disk 1 of the
Windows release. You put this program on your hard disk, in some
place out of the way, then use it by making the following entry
in your CONFIG.SYS file:
device = c:\pathname\RAMDISK.SYS /E:2000
(inserting the appropriate directory names for "pathname").
(I also probably have the format wrong, but you can check
easily enough, just look for RAMDISK.SYS in the glossary)
Next, you enter Windows, and in its own directory you will
find a file called WIN.INI. You pick this entry with your mouse, as
if you were starting a program, and Windows will invoke the notepad
program to allow you to edit the file. Search through the file until
you find the entry that looks like:
swapdisk=c
and modify that to read:
swapdisk=d .
Now, reboot your pc, and you will see the ramdrive start up,
then when you enter Windows, you will notice a slight increase in
performance (better than slight, actually). What is happening is
that Windows is using its Ramdisk in the upper memory as paging
space, for swapping the programs you load. By the way, Microsoft
heavily recommends in the manual that you use their ramdisk program
over the vdisk.sys program supplied by IBM in DOS 3.0 ad 3.1. I
assume they feel their program performs better in some respect.
You still have the same basic memory limitations on the number of
programs that can be loaded at one time, all that you'll see is a
faster response time while jumping from one program to another.
I recommend that you stick to running around three programs or less,
at least until the next version of DOS is out. This will give you
decent speed and hopefully avoid some of the "not enough memory to
load this program" responses.
John W. Jabusch
U.S. Mail:
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Room 230 Digital Computer Laboratory
1304 West Springfield Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 333-4111
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ARPA: jabusch@uiuc.arpaberger@datacube.UUCP (07/18/86)
I worked on a project to develop an application based on MS Windows, I was greatly disapointed with MS Windows. When you first sit down and start going over the manuals, it looks great. It seems to have all the features and functions you need. Then when you start writing programs, you discover that MS Windows is more that a windowing package. It controls the horizontal, it controls the vertical, you are in the outer limits of frustration. You call functions that work in other normal programs and nothing happens, no error messages and no function execution! It took us 3 days to figure out how to get a menu button to control something. We never figured out how to get text into text windows and then into a function (THERE IS NO printf, scanf, or even a getchar!) Debuging was a nitemare and there was no guidance in the manuals. Now to be fair, the big problem is that MS Windows is trying to be a multi-tasking operating system on to of brain damaged MS-DOS running on a crippled computer based on an 80286 in "real" mode. This forces MS Windows to do software based memory management. MS Windows will probably become a standard, but it will need a lot of work in support tools, tutorials and documentation.