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From: ab2r@quads.uchicago.edu (Marshall Abrams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Epsilon on Portfolio, Poqet etc.
Message-ID: <1991Apr13.033116.18916@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 13 Apr 91 03:31:16 GMT
References: <1991Apr11.000417.12608@athena.mit.edu> <1991Apr11.093641.390@cs.ruu.nl>
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Organization: University of Chicago
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In article <1991Apr11.093641.390@cs.ruu.nl> hnridder@cs.ruu.nl (Ernst de Ridder) writes:
>In <1991Apr11.000417.12608@athena.mit.edu> mjwargo@athena.mit.edu (Michael J Wargo) writes:
>What about a 4,77 MHz 8088 with only 256 Kb memory and 1 360 Kb disk?
>It works fine as long as you don't try to load big files; there isn't much
>swappingroom on such a disk.

This is exactly what I wanted to know about--running Epsilon on a 4.77
mhs 8088.  Can you give a little more info on how quickly Epsilon runs
on a slow machine like this?  I've been running Freemacs 1.6,
Microemacs 10 (?), and Brief 3.0 on my 8088, and they're all
annoyingly slow some of the time.  Freemacs is OK for most things, but
I have to sit and wait while it switches from one on-screen window to
the other.  Microemacs doesn't have this problem, but when more than
one window is open, what I type doesn't appear on the screen until I
stop typing.  And Brief is slow doing LOTS of things.  Try jumping one
word at a time on a 4.77 mhz machine--you'll see what I mean.

All of these are things that CAN be put up with, but I'm trying to
avoid putting up with them.  (Or maybe I should just practice not
getting annoyed...)  So what I want to know is whether in your
experience with Epsilon on an 8088, you find it "just OK" speedwise,
with some pretty slow spots, or if it's really fine.  (Of course it's
not going to be (as they say) "blazingly fast", but that goes without
saying on a 5-year old computer.  Wait till 1996, when noone will
every call a 486 "blazingly fast".)  I'll add that I have 512K and a
hard drive, so that may help a little with some aspects of Epsilon's
operation.  Thanks.

		Marshall Abrams
		ab2r@midway.uchicago.edu