Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hp-pcd!hpsgpa!plim
From: plim@hpsgpa.HP.COM (Peter Lim)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: BASIC QUESTION ABOUT DESQVIEW (was WINDOWS)
Message-ID: <340051@hpsgpa.HP.COM>
Date: 13 Dec 89 04:17:24 GMT
References: <245@cvbnet.Prime.COM>
Organization: HP Singapore IC Design Ctr
Lines: 55

> 
> I am interested in Desqview as an alternative to Windows. I have a 386
> machine and am interested in a miulti-tasking multi-window environment.
> 
> Can I run different command "shells" (COMMAND.COM) in the seperate windows?
> 
Not very sure about that, but I think YES. I was having a bit of problem
with 4DOS and DesqView. Running DesqView directly under 4DOS messes things
up. Finally, I got things to work by running a COMMAND.COM shell first
before starting DesqView, then when I open each window, COMMAND.COM is
used to start it. To get 4DOS instead, I just run 4DOS in the particular
window (used up a couple more KB) and everything works just fine !

> How fast is it? (It's gotta be faster than Windows!)
> 
Never measure it exactly, but definitely much faster than Windows.
I have actually, got DesqView up and run multiple copies of 4DOS windows
each 512K and the multi-tasking looks good (except when some program
screws-up).

> How easy is it to cut-and-paste between windows? (I have a MS mouse).
> 
DesqView pull-down menu has a built-in cut-and-paste facillity which
handles text. But, I never grow to like it.

> Do I need to set up .PIF-like files for everything I want to run?
> 
Not exactly. If you are as lazy as me, I simply run the 4DOS
start-up and setup the DesqView entry saying this window do all kind
of nasty things (like write direct to screen etc.). Then when the
window is opened, I just run whatever application from the 4DOS command
prompt like I would if I were not using DesqView. Simple as that. No
PIF file. PIF file like things will only be needed if you want to fine-tune
each application (like my brother did) and have them as entry in the
DesqView pull-down menu.


The only problem I have with DesqView is that I find that it is not 
too hard for me to crash DesqView. But, then, I was just testing the
thing and running nasty graphics and test softwares bent on crashing
the system  :-). Overall, sounds like a pretty good multi-tasking
product short of going UN*X.


Regards,
Peter Lim.
HP Singapore IC Design Center.

      E-mail address:              plim@hpsgwg.HP.COM
      Snail Mail address:          Peter Lim
                                   Hewlett Packard Singapore,
                                   (ICDS, ICS)
                                   1150, Depot Road,
                                   Singapore   0410.
      Telephone:                   (065)-279-2289