frotz@dri.com (Frotz) (04/28/91)
DISCLAIMER: ----------- I really don't like to post this, but I feel that there is a need on the net (and that the company is better served if technical people are not wasting their time and money on a product that just may not work for them:-(. I am not speaking officially for the company. I do feel that those who want and need multi-user systems should still take a look. This is only a warning about the loss of PRINTER/AUX (COMn: lines) serial interrupts due to the improved Interrupt swapping from Concurrent DOS 386 v3.0. The CHASE: ---------- I picked up a copy of DR Multi-user DOS. I really like the over-all product and I have very high confidence in DR/UK's ability to support many (and possibly) all of the claims made by product marketing... HOWEVER, there is one application that DR Multi-user DOS cannot support as of the 5.0 release: __Multiple serial communications applications at HIGH speeds with NO LINE PROTOCOL__ By Serial Communications applications, I mean terminal emulators talking at 9600 or 19200. Now the workaround is enabling XON/XOFF, but for MicroEMACS users (me) this is also a loss. I understand that DR/UK has put a lot of work into supporting communications programs in the background at low speeds and I would trust this. They have had a lot of time to get this part working. It is my conjecture that they don't have the environment where testing direct line 9600 baud+ serial communications lines (this is not a SERIAL TERMINAL or a PCTERM). They DO have the environment where testing lots of communication programs on 1200 and 2400 baud modems would be covered in their test plan. SUMMARY: -------- In summary, this is still a very nice product, but if you main application is having multiple serial sessions to a centralized host at 9600 or 19200 baud WITH NO LINE PROTOCOL, then you will have to settle for having the XON/XOFF protocol enabled. It is a still __VERY NICE__ improvement over Digital Research's Concurrent DOS 386 v3.0 -- John "Frotz" Fa'atuai frotz@dri.com (email@domain) Digital Research, Inc. uunet!drivax!frotz (bang!email) c/o MIS Dept. (408) 647-6570 (vmail) 80 Garden Court, CompRm (408) 649-3896 (phone) Monterey, CA 93940 (408) 646-6248 (fax) ========== "He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know." -- Lao Tzu "...Me? I talk a lot!-)"