jsulliva@cvbnet.UUCP (Jeff Sullivan, x4096 MS 4-2) (12/09/89)
From article <413@vlsi.ll.mit.edu>, by malpass@vlsi.ll.mit.edu (Don Malpass): > In article <213400073@s.csd?ouc.edu> firest r@s.cs.uiuc.edu writes: >> >>... Basic questions about Windows.... >>.... what good is windows .... I am interested in Desqview as an alternative to Windows. I have a 386 machine and am interested in a miulti-tasking multi-window environment. Can I run different command "shells" (COMMAND.COM) in the seperate windows? How fast is it? (It's gotta be faster than Windows!) How easy is it to cut-and-paste between windows? (I have a MS mouse). Do I need to set up .PIF-like files for everything I want to run? Any input appreciated. Thanks Jeff Sullivan Computervision Division CADDS R&D Prime Computer, Inc. Bedford, MA 01730 ----------------------------------------------- UUCP : {decvax|linus|sun}!cvbnet!jsulliva Internet: jsulliva@cvbnet.prime.com -----------------------------------------------
kmcvay@oneb.UUCP (Ken McVay) (12/11/89)
I ran DESQview 386 on an Everex 386/16 with a meg of RAM for about 6 months.
I used DV to run dual FrontDoor/Opus BBS systems, and it worked without a
flaw....I only took it down when I installed Xenix on my new 386, and had
no further need to multitask on the Everex.
With 1024k, life with DV386 can be very restrictive, however. I was able to
use 364k in one window (out of the "lower 640") and about 240 out of the
384k extended memory. While the communications stuff worked VERY well, there
really wasn't enough RAM with DV loaded to do word processing or number work
(WordStar 5.0 would load, but I couldn't print anything, while SuperCalc5
wouldn't load) without hassles.
On my Eltech 386/25, with 4 megs of RAM, it was a different story - I could
open 550k windows and do whatever needed doing without disturbing other
applications (FD/Opus, for instance). In short, I suggest that for routine
office or business applications, you should have at least a meg of expanded
(above 1024k) RAM. Once you have that, you will love DESQview -
We ran some "fun" tests on the Eltech before installing Xenix, just to see
what we could squeeze. A batch file was created and run in two windows
(550k) - the batch file was your basic "time waster" and ran lots of disk i/o
stuff in a loop, with Norton's SI tossed in for good measure:
:Waste CPU time to play with DESQview on the 386/25
key-fake "B" 13 ;pre-load keyboard buffer
DT ;Norton's Disk Test
DS NE /S ;sort directories
chkdsk
SI
dir \util\*.EXE/w ;7 megs of junk in here
goto WASTE
The SI runs would report anything from 17 to 29, depending upon what the
other partition was doing at the time. There was no significant difference
noted when we opened the routine in another (third) partition. (The Eltech
reports an SI of 33 without DV running)
In short, go for it - DV's reasonably fast and stable - you'll be glad you
installed it :-)
--
"The number of things in a given class is the class of all classes
that are similar to the given class." (Sprague de Camp)plim@hpsgpa.HP.COM (Peter Lim) (12/13/89)
> > I am interested in Desqview as an alternative to Windows. I have a 386 > machine and am interested in a miulti-tasking multi-window environment. > > Can I run different command "shells" (COMMAND.COM) in the seperate windows? > Not very sure about that, but I think YES. I was having a bit of problem with 4DOS and DesqView. Running DesqView directly under 4DOS messes things up. Finally, I got things to work by running a COMMAND.COM shell first before starting DesqView, then when I open each window, COMMAND.COM is used to start it. To get 4DOS instead, I just run 4DOS in the particular window (used up a couple more KB) and everything works just fine ! > How fast is it? (It's gotta be faster than Windows!) > Never measure it exactly, but definitely much faster than Windows. I have actually, got DesqView up and run multiple copies of 4DOS windows each 512K and the multi-tasking looks good (except when some program screws-up). > How easy is it to cut-and-paste between windows? (I have a MS mouse). > DesqView pull-down menu has a built-in cut-and-paste facillity which handles text. But, I never grow to like it. > Do I need to set up .PIF-like files for everything I want to run? > Not exactly. If you are as lazy as me, I simply run the 4DOS start-up and setup the DesqView entry saying this window do all kind of nasty things (like write direct to screen etc.). Then when the window is opened, I just run whatever application from the 4DOS command prompt like I would if I were not using DesqView. Simple as that. No PIF file. PIF file like things will only be needed if you want to fine-tune each application (like my brother did) and have them as entry in the DesqView pull-down menu. The only problem I have with DesqView is that I find that it is not too hard for me to crash DesqView. But, then, I was just testing the thing and running nasty graphics and test softwares bent on crashing the system :-). Overall, sounds like a pretty good multi-tasking product short of going UN*X. Regards, Peter Lim. HP Singapore IC Design Center. E-mail address: plim@hpsgwg.HP.COM Snail Mail address: Peter Lim Hewlett Packard Singapore, (ICDS, ICS) 1150, Depot Road, Singapore 0410. Telephone: (065)-279-2289
RHOPGOOD@ucs.UAlberta.CA (Robert Hopgood) (12/14/89)
In article <245@cvbnet.Prime.COM>, jsulliva@cvbnet.UUCP (Jeff Sullivan, x4096 MS 4-2) writes: >I am interested in Desqview as an alternative to Windows. I have a 386 >machine and am interested in a miulti-tasking multi-window environment. >Can I run different command "shells" (COMMAND.COM) in the seperate windows? >How fast is it? (It's gotta be faster than Windows!) >How easy is it to cut-and-paste between windows? (I have a MS mouse). >Do I need to set up .PIF-like files for everything I want to run? Check out PC MAGAZINE vol 8 num 4 Feb 28, 1989. It has a very informative article about 386 multitasking operating systems. Included are reviews about DESQview 386 and MicroSoft Windows/386 plus 3 others. Their choses were DESQview 386, MicroSoft Windoew/386 and VM/386. Robert