toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) (05/07/90)
Background: The new Microsoft C 6.0 and the forthcoming Microsoft Windows 3.0 both require the new HIMEM.SYS 2.0 to operate most efficiently (Microsoft C needs it for best operation of Codeview Verson 3.0). HIMEM.SYS provides crude extended memory support for some applications (called "XMS"). Obvious Warning: All of this software has version numbers ending with ".0" which is a bad omen for all products, and Microsoft products in particular. <Start of Flame/Gripe/Comment> Microsoft warns the purchaser that the new HIMEM.SYS is incompatible with QEMM and 386/MAX, and Windows <3.0. They seemed to have completely changed the standard so that 1) you can't use the new HIMEM with programs expecting the old HIMEM (such as Windows) and 2) programs that provided XMS, such as 386/MAX don't work with programs expecting the new HIMEM.SYS (such as Codeview). So they managed both upwards and downwards incompatibility. But what they don't tell you is that programs that use extended memory and don't talk to HIMEM won't work at all! For me this includes my disk caching and ramdisk programs (Microsoft provides replacements, which require HIMEM 2.0, but their caching program is inferior), 286 protected mode programs such as Smalltalk/V286, and 386 protected mode programs run under PharLap DOS/Extender (I have many of these). The problem seems to be that HIMEM insists of globbing onto all of the extended memory, while 386/MAX lets you set extended memory aside for drivers and converts the remaining simulated Expanded Memory into extended for the PharLap programs. <Flame/Gripe/Comment Off> Tom Almy toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com Standard Disclaimers Apply