Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.desqview
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!maytag!xenitec!geoffw
From: geoffw@xenitec.on.ca (Geoffrey Welsh)
Subject: Re: Beginners questions
Organization: Xenitec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, CANADA
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 1991 09:21:34 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Jun05.092134.18683@xenitec.on.ca>
References: <1991Jun4.021835.24916@serval.net.wsu.edu>

In article <1991Jun4.021835.24916@serval.net.wsu.edu> msmith@proton.tricity.wsu.edu (Mark Smith) writes:
>I have a couple (hundred) questions.
>
>1.  Will DESQview 386 allow me to run 8 dos programs that need 640K apiece
>    all at once?  Memory resident?  All actually executing?

   Only if youre're willing to sacrifice EGA or VGA graphics
by using the VIDRAM program; smaller windows are possible
without doing so.  Precise details in a second...

>2  That is IF I have 8 Meg?

   That would be nice, but not necessary... I'd guess that
six megs would be enough for eight full tasks.

   Here's a summary of the task sizes I get in my VLSI 386SX:

		Normal	w/VIDRAM
Plain boot	608,224	705,200

DV: 1st task	590,112	688,416
DV: 2nd task	574,048	672,352
	3rd	574,032	672,336
			672,320
			672,304
			328,224 (ran out of RAM on a 4M machine)

   As you can see, the first task is significantly larger than
the next few you open; how much you lose from first to second
depends on your machine (it may be a few K on a 386 or over
200K on a 286).  Thereafter, you lose *16 bytes* per task
until memory is exhausted. 

   So, if you can accept 512K tasks in stead of 640, your memory
requirements go something like this:

1M preliminary - covers first task, high RAM, overhead;
1/2M per task thereafter.

   4M should do seven tasks reasonably well.  In fact, I have
four megs in my 386SX and, even with a megabyte taken out for
disk caching, I can run five tasks.  8M is a good idea if you're
using programs that can eat a lot of EMS RAM or you want to run
more tasks.

>3  I guess that I want true multitasking.  Will DESQview do it?

   On a 386 (or 486, or 386SX or even a 286 with *hardware*
EEMS support - though the 286 is subject to the limitations
of slightly smaller windows in most cases), yes.

   I am typing this via a terminal program in task 3.  Task 1
is running a FidoNet BBS/Usenet mail relay, and task 2 is running
my mail reader.  I can start a 'background' download, someone
can sign on the BBS, and I can read my mail at the same time.

   Geoff