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From: nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: DesqView  (VGA line correction)
Message-ID: <4ab90c6d.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 31 May 90 15:23:00 GMT
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 62


 


From: shim@zip.eecs.umich.edu (Sam Shim)

>>  it certainly does not work all that well.  At last count (this weekend)
>>  *half* of my programs either don't run at all under Desqview or require
>>  special handling like being loaded first or not having certain 
>>  other programs in the system at the same time.  Now granted, I
>>  probably have a larger percentage of graphics programs than other
>>  people and graphics appears to be Desqview's Achilles Heel, but
>>  given the increasing popularity of graphics programs on the market 
>>  and the apparent unwillingness of companies to write PC software
>>  which is well-behaved, this will seriously limit the value of Desqview.
>

>                                   Desqview is not a multi-tasker for
>the average computer user.  It is a hacker's multi-tasker (at least in
>my opinion).  Some programs, especially graphic programs, require a lot
>of option flipping to get it right.  Usually the best combo for a difficult
>program is to run it full-screen with direct writes to screen and no
>virtualization. 

 This doesn't make sense to me.  If you turn virtualization off, at 
 least with all my graphics app's then when you put it in background
 it scribbles all over whatever is in foreground.  Moreover, anything
 which got drawn while in background is not retained when you put it
 back in foreground.  That's the whole idea of virtualizing things:
 it doesn't write to the physical screen it writes to a virtual one
 in RAM so that  A.) it doesn't clobber the real screen and  B.)
 everything it did in background is retained to refresh the screen 
 with when you bring back to foreground.  I don't understand how
 you can truly multitask most programs without virtualization.


>setting something totally unrelated to a different value will fix it also
>(a bug somewhere, but I'm not sure which). 

 If it's "totally unrelated" then there's no systematic way to make a
 choice so you have to try things at random.  How many different 
 parameters can you set with Desqview between QEMM and the Change
 Screen pages?  I don't have it front of me but let's say there are 30
 (although I'm sure there are more).  Also, to GREATLY over-simplify
 let's say that each parameter had only two values instead of the
 many that some, like "EXCLUDE" or "Program Size", really have.  This
 means that a hacker would have 2^30 possibilities, i.e., 1073741824
 possible settings.   At ten seconds to test each one, that comes out
 to over 30,000 years at 16 hours a day, no days off.  Of course, there's
 a 50/50 chance that he would solve his bug at the 15,000 year mark. 
 The dedicated Desqview user who takes THIS approach had better stock
 up on Domino's pizza and Coca-Cola (or better yet, Jolt -- "all
 the sugar and twice the caffeine"). 

>   It's a difficult program to use, but I feel that the rewards are
>   worth it.

 I already know more than some of their tech support staff.  I've spent 
 $120 in phone calls to them (and I only spent $115 on the program
 itself!).  I can't wait for the rewards to start rolling in!

                                                 ---Peter