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From: zhou@brazil.psych.purdue.edu (Albert Q.Zhou)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Turbo 5.5 vs 6.0
Message-ID: <11949@j.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 22 Jun 91 08:57:37 GMT
References: <9106210330.AA22569@lux.sait.edu.au>
Sender: news@j.cc.purdue.edu
Reply-To: zhou@brazil.psych.purdue.edu (Albert Q.Zhou)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 26

In article <9106210330.AA22569@lux.sait.edu.au> et891856@LUX.SAIT.EDU.AU (et891856) writes:
>At the moment I have Turbo 5.5.  is it worth my while upgrading to
>turbo 6.0.  Does it compile faster, produce faster code or does it
>just take up more disk space?  I have a twin floppy XT system.
The main reason I upgraded to 6.0 is TVision. However, for those with slower
machine and less memory, the following facts may be worth considering:

(1) 6.0 takes more memory while in IDE. When you use Graph or TVision, a 640k
machine can easily run out of memory. If one just does conventional Pascal
programming, 640k might suffice in most cases.

(2) The compiler is not faster than 6.0. As a matter of fact, since the compiler
of 6.0 access the disk more frequently than 5.5, I cannot imagine anyone can
stand the compiling process of a dual-floppy drive system.

(3) 6.0 uses swap technique which takes advantage of EMS or lightning fast
IDE hard drive to run a big program like TP6.0 IDE without taking up a lot of
system memory. For the floppy drive system users, TP6.0 is like a hell. Almost
every keystroke on TP6.0 IDE evokes the annoying noises generated by the floppy
drive reading data from the diskette, and a torturing delayed response.

(4) Besides using swap technique, TP6.0 sets up a standard for all file-
related operations in IDE to automatically display directory/file information
in the dialog box, which is completely inconsiderate to floppy drive system
users. Rather than mentioning "hard drive recommended", the ad for TP6.0
should state "very unpleasant without hard drive".