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From: amull@Morgan.COM (Andrew P. Mullhaupt)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Windows 3.0 multitasking
Message-ID: <1614@s6.Morgan.COM>
Date: 3 Sep 90 17:06:14 GMT
Organization: Morgan Stanley & Co. NY, NY
Lines: 43

1. Windows 3.0 uses cooperative multitasking for windows applications.
Has anyone figured out how to get away with calling CPU intensive 
routines in Linpack and Eispack without rewriting them and not
creating big gaps in the machine response? 

There are two objections to rewriting Linpack and Eispack. 

	A. They are in FORTRAN, and make extensive use of multidimensional
	   formal parameters. This is a real problem in C, where you either
	   give up speed by making arrays into vectors of vectors (a la
	   Numerical Recipes) or you go insane using stride into simple
	   vectors. (You will run afoul of aliasing restrictions on 
	   compiler optimizations if you try to make this approach even
	   remotely humane.) 

	B. The rewriting of Linpack and Eispack is one of the few cases
	   where you shouldn't write your own code. This stuff has been
	   tested and used for many years now by the greater part of the
	   numerical analysis profession and many attempts to rewrite,
	   port, or otherwise tweak this code have produced substandard
	   results. The officially sanctioned rewriting of Linpack and
	   Eispack (the LA project) is writing the code for vector and
	   parallel processing, and will not (as far as I know) help with
	   sticking these things in Windows apps.

Yes, people have put these into Mac applications, but as everyone knows
they run slower than constipation in February on Macs. This would be a
nice situation to avoid.

2. Why does Windows support a subset character set? This seems just
out and out stupid to me. Does this mean that even if I create the
appropriate APL font that many Windows apps (notepad, etc.) will
not be able to use it? Under what circumstances would anyone writing
a GUI think that a limited character set was a good idea?

3. How do I get high speed (56K and 110K baud) serial communications
in a Windows App? Solution must work in same application as previous
two...

Later,
Andrew Mullhaupt

P.S. only 4 more months until DesqView/X.