[comp.windows.ms] MKS Toolkit and DESQView or Windows

igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Isidore G Bendrihem) (12/19/90)

I'm planning on purchasing the MKS Toolkit, and I'd like to run it under
either Windows 3.0 or DESQView.  Anybody know of any compatibility problems
between the Toolkit and either of the windowing environments?  I'm concerned
with the text editor vi (some editors have problems running under 
DESQView and/or Windows).  Also, how much memory "sh" frees while executing
other programs?  Thanks. Respond to this account and I'll simmurize.

Isidore Bendrihem
igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu

jgb@prism.gatech.EDU (James G. Baker) (12/19/90)

In article <1990Dec18.163111.1798@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Isidore G Bendrihem) writes:
>I'm planning on purchasing the MKS Toolkit, and I'd like to run it under
>either Windows 3.0 or DESQView.  Anybody know of any compatibility problems
>between the Toolkit and either of the windowing environments?  I'm concerned
>with the text editor vi (some editors have problems running under 
>DESQView and/or Windows).  Also, how much memory "sh" frees while executing
>other programs?  Thanks. Respond to this account and I'll simmurize.

I am a big mks and DESQview fan but had trouble mixing the two.  I wanted a 
ksh (mks) window but I think mks messes with command.com or DOS at the 
DESQview level.  Mks, I believe, uses an undocumented DOS call that allows
the switch character to be "-" instead of "/".  Some programs can handle it
(Norton, I think), but others die.  (This also allows the file system
to use "/" instead of "\".  Note: I was using MKS 2.3 and DV 2.26.

Good luck.

-- 
BAKER,JAMES G - Lab Technician, School of Electrical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp:	  ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!jgb 
Internet: jgb@prism.gatech.edu

ti@altos86.Altos.COM (Ti Kan) (12/20/90)

In article <1990Dec18.163111.1798@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Isidore G Bendrihem) writes:
>I'm planning on purchasing the MKS Toolkit, and I'd like to run it under
>either Windows 3.0 or DESQView.  Anybody know of any compatibility problems
>between the Toolkit and either of the windowing environments?

I am current running exactly the combination you describe on my
386 box (with 4MB memory).  I have autoexec.bat start up Windows 3.0
in 386 enhanced mode, and I made a .pif file for MKS Toolkit's
/etc/init.exe.  I also created an entry under the "Main" group
for MKS Toolkit, so I could invoke MKS's full init-login sequence
in its own window, multi-tasked with other applications.

Everything is working okay so far, except the following minor
annoyances:

1. Whenever a DOS critical error occurs (such as when one tries
   to do a floppy operation without a floppy in the drive) while
   the active window is the MKS Toolkit window, the window suddenly
   becomes full screen.  I can forcefully iconicize MKS Toolkit with
   Alt-Esc, and change MKS back to a window again with the by clicking
   on the MKS Toolkit icon and selecting the "Settings" entry.

2. MKS Toolkit runs best when the DOS switch char is '-'.  But since
   Windows does not allow different switch chars for each multiple task,
   if we change the switch char to '-' for MKS, all other applications
   get affected.  This is especially annoying if you also want to
   start a command.com window, and suddenly the command line arguments
   no longer works.  A suggestion to Microsoft for future Windows
   releases: make the switch char task specific!

3. Since there is no way to make MKS Toolkit exit after starting init,
   One has to forcibly terminate MKS Toolkit before shutting down
   Windows.  Windows will not exit if there are still active applications
   running.

Other than that, everything behaves fine.  I am a bit appalled, though,
at the poor performance when I start up multiple screen-intensive
text mode windows (each running "squares", a pattern drawing program
that exercizes the screen in text mode).  This is in stark contrast
to doing the same under UNIX/X Windows on the same machine, which is nice
and fast.  I tried diddling with Windows' time slice, and scheduling
priority parameters with limited success, but the final result is still
very slow.

E-mail me if you are interested in knowing more about my configuration.

-Ti
-- 
Ti Kan | vorsprung durch technik!                                       \\\
Internet: ti@altos.com                                                   \\\
UUCP: ...!{sun|sco|pyramid|amdahl|uunet}!altos!ti                     /// \\\
The opinions herein are not necessarily those of Altos.              ////////\

andy@mks.com (Andy Toy) (12/22/90)

In article <1990Dec18.163111.1798@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Isidore G Bendrihem) writes:
>I'm planning on purchasing the MKS Toolkit, and I'd like to run it under
>either Windows 3.0 or DESQView.  Anybody know of any compatibility problems
>between the Toolkit and either of the windowing environments?  

See the comp.windows.ms FAQ for answers to problems between the MKS
Toolkit and Microsoft Windows 3.0.  Basically there are no known
problems that we don't have a fix for.

>I'm concerned with the text editor vi (some editors have problems
>running under DESQView and/or Windows).

Under DESQview the window has to have the attributes:

	Writes text directly to screen...: [N]
	Virtualize text/graphics.........: [N]

The problem has been identified and is fixed for a future release.

>Also, how much memory "sh" frees while executing other programs?  

The Korn Shell has an optional transient segment so it is reloaded if
overwritten by the executing programme.  It's a segment so the answer
is 64 kB.

These answers are applicable to MKS Toolkit version 3.1.
-- 
Andy Toy, Mortice Kern Systems Inc.,       Internet: andy@mks.com
  35 King Street North, Waterloo,       UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!andy
      Ontario, CANADA N2J 2W9      Phone: 519-884-2251  FAX: 519-884-8861

rwh@ontmoh.UUCP (Russell Herman) (12/22/90)

From article <1990Dec18.163111.1798@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, by igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Isidore G Bendrihem):
> I'm planning on purchasing the MKS Toolkit, and I'd like to run it under
> either Windows 3.0 or DESQView.  Anybody know of any compatibility problems
> between the Toolkit and either of the windowing environments?  I'm concerned
> with the text editor vi (some editors have problems running under 
> DESQView and/or Windows).  Also, how much memory "sh" frees while executing
> other programs?  Thanks. Respond to this account and I'll simmurize.
> 
> Isidore Bendrihem
> igb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu

Yes, there are some minor problems.  MKS vi, at least the version I have from
6 months ago, is the only text-mode program I've seen that won't run in a
virtualized window.  It just locks up the window and beeps.  The workaround
is to run it unvirtualized.  Or, if you don't need 100% fully compatible vi,
run ELVIS instead.  The other tools run fine in DESQView (I don't run the
shell, but it can be done).  I've been quite happy with the toolkit and
support from MKS.

Russ Herman
lsuc!ontmoh!rwh
-- 

Russell Herman
...!lsuc!ontmoh!rwh
Microcomputer Support Specialist
Ontario Ministry of Health
15 Overlea Blvd., 2nd Fl.
Toronto, ON Canada M4H 1A9
Voice: +1 416 963-3320 Fax: +1 416 963-1878