msmith@proton.tricity.wsu.edu (Mark Smith) (06/04/91)
I have a couple (hundred) questions.
1. Will DESQview 386 allow me to run 8 dos programs that need 640K apiece
all at once? Memory resident? All actually executing?
2 That is IF I have 8 Meg?
3 I guess that I want true multitasking. Will DESQview do it?
HELP!!!geoffw@xenitec.on.ca (Geoffrey Welsh) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun4.021835.24916@serval.net.wsu.edu> msmith@proton.tricity.wsu.edu (Mark Smith) writes: >I have a couple (hundred) questions. > >1. Will DESQview 386 allow me to run 8 dos programs that need 640K apiece > all at once? Memory resident? All actually executing? Only if youre're willing to sacrifice EGA or VGA graphics by using the VIDRAM program; smaller windows are possible without doing so. Precise details in a second... >2 That is IF I have 8 Meg? That would be nice, but not necessary... I'd guess that six megs would be enough for eight full tasks. Here's a summary of the task sizes I get in my VLSI 386SX: Normal w/VIDRAM Plain boot 608,224 705,200 DV: 1st task 590,112 688,416 DV: 2nd task 574,048 672,352 3rd 574,032 672,336 672,320 672,304 328,224 (ran out of RAM on a 4M machine) As you can see, the first task is significantly larger than the next few you open; how much you lose from first to second depends on your machine (it may be a few K on a 386 or over 200K on a 286). Thereafter, you lose *16 bytes* per task until memory is exhausted. So, if you can accept 512K tasks in stead of 640, your memory requirements go something like this: 1M preliminary - covers first task, high RAM, overhead; 1/2M per task thereafter. 4M should do seven tasks reasonably well. In fact, I have four megs in my 386SX and, even with a megabyte taken out for disk caching, I can run five tasks. 8M is a good idea if you're using programs that can eat a lot of EMS RAM or you want to run more tasks. >3 I guess that I want true multitasking. Will DESQview do it? On a 386 (or 486, or 386SX or even a 286 with *hardware* EEMS support - though the 286 is subject to the limitations of slightly smaller windows in most cases), yes. I am typing this via a terminal program in task 3. Task 1 is running a FidoNet BBS/Usenet mail relay, and task 2 is running my mail reader. I can start a 'background' download, someone can sign on the BBS, and I can read my mail at the same time. Geoff
Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (06/06/91)
In article <1991Jun4.021835.24916@serval.net.wsu.edu>, msmith@proton.tricity.wsu.edu (Mark Smith) wrote: }1. Will DESQview 386 allow me to run 8 dos programs that need 640K apiece } all at once? Memory resident? All actually executing? }2 That is IF I have 8 Meg? }3 I guess that I want true multitasking. Will DESQview do it? Yes to all of the above. I set most of my programs to be suspended while in the background, but that is my choice--they could just as easily continue running and wasting CPU time. -- {backbone}!cs.cmu.edu!ralf ARPA: RALF@CS.CMU.EDU FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/53 BITnet: RALF%CS.CMU.EDU@CARNEGIE AT&Tnet: (412)268-3053 (school) FAX: ask DISCLAIMER? Did | It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's I claim something?| what we know that ain't so. --Will Rogers