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From: ti@altos86.Altos.COM (Ti Kan)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps,comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: MKS Toolkit and DESQView or Windows
Message-ID: <4506@altos86.Altos.COM>
Date: 20 Dec 90 02:18:30 GMT
References: <1990Dec18.163111.1798@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Reply-To: ti@altos86.UUCP (Ti Kan)
Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.apps
Organization: Altos Computer Systems, San Jose, CA
Lines: 52

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                                                   \\\
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