gary@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Gary Barrett) (10/18/89)
There is a program called Software Carousel which acts as a simple context-switch, as I understand it. You can run multiple applications and switch among them as needed. (Unlike Windows/386, they just sit in the background, idle.) It is supposedly a bare-bones switcher, not fat like Windows or as expensive either. Does anyone on the net have experience with Carousel? Do you like it? I need something less than Windows and Desqview, with such a context-switching capability. -- ======================================================================== Gary L. Barrett My employer may or may not agree with my opinions. And I may or may not agree with my employer's opinions. ========================================================================
a523@mindlink.UUCP (Frank Murray) (10/18/89)
> gary writes: > > Msg-ID: <834@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM> > Posted: 17 Oct 89 19:38:40 GMT > > Org. : Unisys Corporation, Devon, PA > Person: Gary Barrett > > There is a program called Software Carousel which acts as a simple > context-switch, as I understand it. You can run multiple applications > and switch among them as needed. (Unlike Windows/386, they just sit > in the background, idle.) It is supposedly a bare-bones switcher, not > fat like Windows or as expensive either. > > Does anyone on the net have experience with Carousel? Do you like it? > > I need something less than Windows and Desqview, with such a > context-switching capability. > > -- > ======================================================================= = > Gary L. Barrett > > My employer may or may not agree with my opinions. > And I may or may not agree with my employer's opinions. > ======================================================================= = The Software Carousel works as advertised. It works especially well if you have either extra memory, or a very fast hard disk. Frank Murray MindLink ! [523] ---The views expressed by me ARE the views of my employer...---
pel@unhd.UUCP (Paul E. Leclerc) (10/18/89)
In article <834@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM> gary@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Gary Barrett) writes: >There is a program called Software Carousel which acts as a simple >context-switch, as I understand it. You can run multiple applications >and switch among them as needed. (Unlike Windows/386, they just sit >in the background, idle.) It is supposedly a bare-bones switcher, not >fat like Windows or as expensive either. >Does anyone on the net have experience with Carousel? Do you like it? >I need something less than Windows and Desqview, with such a >context-switching capability. I use an older version of the Software Carousel. I like it alot. It does NO context switching like Windows or DV. YOU manual switch which memory partition you are working on. You can use high memory, EMS, or harddisk for swapping space. When you swap to a new partition, all the other partition stop running. I don't mind that at all. I can have WP4.0 running in one partition (640K), 1-2-3 in another(640k) and an editor in yet another. I just hit a hotkey and poooof.. another partition is swapped in. I also use it to run Telix (comm package) in a partition and have a full DOS partition. NOTE: I am connected directly to a mainframe. I don't know if a modem would drop the line if I swapped Telix out. I can't downloading/uploading in the background but at 19.2K baud, it doesn't matter!! The new version is supposed to be alot better. >-- >======================================================================== >Gary L. Barrett >My employer may or may not agree with my opinions. >And I may or may not agree with my employer's opinions. >======================================================================== -- =========================================================================== Paul Leclerc, Computer Specialist III |Bitnet: P_LECLERC@UNHH.BITNET University of NH |UUCP: ...uunet!unh!pel
gary@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Gary Barrett) (10/23/89)
Thanks to everyone who replied to me about Software Carousel. The program sounds like a winner, one which at least will meet my own personal needs. I am including a sampling of the responses which I received, since many expressed an interest in this information: ======================================================================== We have been using Carousel in our department for about 3 or 4 years and it works very well. We are using NCR PC6's(XT compatibles). You must have extra menory to really take advantage of CAROUSEL. We have JRAM cards from TALLTREE Systems with a MEG of extra memory. We can have Wordstar,SuperCalc4,XTREE, the network system, and several other applications running at the same time. dBase IV needs too much dos memory to run correctly, but dBASE III runs fine. ========================================================================= I used Carousel intensively about 2 years ago. I like it, and I'd use it a whole lot more if I didn't work in an academic environment with a half-zillion different configurations/networks/environments to support. What I used it for was software development. I have a Zenith 6mhz AT with 20 meg Hard disk and 2 meg of extended memory that I use as a ramdisk. With Carousel I mapped 5 or 6 memory images into the ramdisk with each handling between 384 and 512K. These "partitions" are where complete memory images get swapped out. So I had an editor partition, a partition that ran disk directory software, one that I ran assembler and compilers in, etc. Each partition is mapped to a function key, so to switch between them you type something like alt-F1 for the first one, alt-F2 for the second, etc. I don't know how worthwhile it would be without the ramdisk though. I suppose it depends on how quick your hard disk is. I can switch between tasks on the ramdisk in 1.16 seconds. On my Seagate 4026 (which is very full, so this is probably a worst case) I can do it in 8.5 seconds. Note that the 4026 is a very fast seeking 20meg drive, so your mileage may vary. ======================================================================= Got it and LOVE it! I have version 2. something. Version 3 is out and I hope to be upgrading. It is super! Basically, SC makes multiple DOS partions. You can make each a different size, but max I've gotten is about 584K. It depends on how you load SC. I like it because I can switch between different partions without interrupting anything. For instance, you're editing a file in Partion #1; Suddenly you need figures from your database - pop over and work in the database WITHOUT TERMINATING your word processor; get your data and pop back to partion #1. You are right where you left off! (It does not do multitasking! When you leave a partion, it doesn't keep running. It's just suspended.) ======================================================================== I use TakeCharge from DTI (they advertise in BYTE and other mags). It really does do what they say it does in their ads (well, with several bugs). It will do everything Software Carousel does. plus everything Norton does. plus plus plus plus... At the time I got it, they charged $99 plus about $5 for shipping. I think it's normally $139+$5. You don't get multi-tasking, (more than one program running simultaneously), but you do get context switching. I can press alt-shift-q and be in my editor, alt-shift-b and be in my comm program, alt-shift-i to blank the screen and sit idle until I press a key, etc. It comes with disk diagnostic utilities, including drfragmenter, undeleter, file zapper (so that nothing can recover it), appointment calendar, directory editor / file handler, two types of calculator, notepad with utility that lets you grab displays from running programs and save them in a file or send them to other programs, and more. It takes up about 30k of memory, but I eliminated about 40k of other TSRs (like the 128 key type-ahead buffer I had, the key speed-up TSR, and the freeware sidekick clone). As I said, though, it has bugs. In fact it has quite a few. ======================================================================= I use an older version of the Software Carousel. I like it alot. It does NO context switching like Windows or DV. YOU manual switch which memory partition you are working on. You can use high memory, EMS, or harddisk for swapping space. When you swap to a new partition, all the other partition stop running. I don't mind that at all. I can have WP4.0 running in one partition (640K), 1-2-3 in another(640k) and an editor in yet another. I just hit a hotkey and poooof.. another partition is swapped in. I also use it to run Telix (comm package) in a partition and have a full DOS partition. NOTE: I am connected directly to a mainframe. I don't know if a modem would drop the line if I swapped Telix out. I can't downloading/uploading in the background but at 19.2K baud, it doesn't matter!! The new version is supposed to be alot better. ======================================================================== Yeah, I use it on two of my PCs. It doesn't allow SIMULTANUOUS DOS sessions, but you can set up different enviorments in which to run programs. It allows 9 sessions to choose from. But, you have to load the system variables before you can load carousel (ANSI.SYS, COMSPEC, PATH ...). I use up to 4 of these sessions for Turbo C, PACE, DOS, and StarLan. Some drawbacks ... it can take up to 2 Meg on your Hard disk, because what it does without extended/expanded memory is, stores each enviorment and screen data on the disk. When you switch sessions, it writes the current enviorment on disk, and reads the selected enviorment into memory. You don't have to leave edit sessions to compile (if you write it to disk of course). Of course, if you set/reset the comm ports, they won't come back "as they were". Mine only allows me to run 512K programs in sessions 2-9 because of the system overhead which is common to all sessions. -- ======================================================================== Gary L. Barrett My employer may or may not agree with my opinions. And I may or may not agree with my employer's opinions. ========================================================================