Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!jseidman
From: jseidman@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Jim Seidman)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: CPU Usage of Word for Windows, PC-PLUS
Message-ID: <11429@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 29 Mar 91 03:33:28 GMT
References: <274@raysnec.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Headland Technology, Fremont, CA
Lines: 28

shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes:
>[about results from CPU Usage Meter:]
>	Running from the Program Manager, usage typically shows 1-2% -
>unless I'm really doing something - but if I load MS Word for Windows it
>shows a typical 95-97% CPU utilization in edit/insert mode, but drops
>substantially if I'm doing something else in Word.

As the author of CPU Usage, I can guess what's going on.  Usually pretty
much nothing is happening when you're not interacting with the system
because Windows apps are message-based.  However, in some cases programs,
for some reason or another, need to enter a background-processing or polling-
like mode.  In this case, they will take up pretty much all the CPU time
in a tight loop.

>	On another system (AST 386/33 w/4 MB) running 386 Enhanced, I
>discovered that running ProComm Plus in a window pushed utilization up to
>~70%! Closing the window usually brought that usage down to normal.

Dos boxes in 386Enh are very inefficient to start with.  ProComm sits
just polling for input when it's not doing anything, so it's particularly
bad, since Windows can't detect that it's idle.  (If usage doesn't return to
normal when you exit, it's because of a known bug in CPUUSE.  Closing it
and starting it up again will solve the problem.)

-- 
Jim Seidman, Headland Technology, 46221 Landing Parkway, Fremont CA 94538
"It doesn't need to work.  They'll be paralyzed laughing at me."
							- The Doctor, "Shada"