🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct28.231557.29142@cbnewsi.cb.att.com>, promislo@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (mark.r.promislow) writes:
> I am using MS-C/C++ 7.0 with the Qualitas 386MAX memory manager
> that MS packaged with it.  MS-C/C++ 7.0 requires either 386MAX or
> MS-Windows to run their compiler.
>  
> The problem that I am having is if I boot with 386MAX my MS-Windows
> performance is greatly reduced.  Just to run MS-Windows, I needed to
> increase my memory from 4M to 8M.  Also, if I try to load any of my
> PC-Lan software I very quickly get out of memory errors.  I am
> wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if other people have
> encountered similar problems and perhaps found a way around them.

I finally took 386MAX off my system last night and installed the DPMI module
for QEMM.  After $20 in connect time to download patches from Compuserve and
all sorts of compatibility problems, I decided that 386MAX was just too
expensive for me.  386MAX was constantly causing 'insufficient memory'
errors with the C 7.0 tools even with 4 megs of memory, and I was no 
longer able to run some simple Clipper applications I had laying around that
only required 384K of conventional memory.

The clincher came when I found that the virtual memory library that comes
with C 7.0 wouldn't work with 386MAX (even after applying the patches from
Qualitas).  HIMEM/EMM worked fine, QEMM worked fine and the DPMI in Windows
worked -- it was only 386MAX that locked up the system when the VM module
tried to access XMS memory (EMS and disk based VM would work as long as
smartdrv wasn't loaded)

Do yourself a favor and drop 386MAX into the nearest trash can.  QEMM is a
bargin at twice its discounted price and of course himem/emm is included
with DOS and Windows.  Compiling in a Windows DOS box isn't even too bad
if you set the foreground priority high enough.

--rick

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard Hoffbeck               INTERNET: rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu |
| Colon Cancer Control Study     ATT     : (612) 627-4151         |
| University of Minnesota        CIS     : 72406,521              |
| Minneapolis, MN 55455                                           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

promislo@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (mark.r.promislow) writes:

>I am using MS-C/C++ 7.0 with the Qualitas 386MAX memory manager
>that MS packaged with it.  MS-C/C++ 7.0 requires either 386MAX or
>MS-Windows to run their compiler.

>The problem that I am having is if I boot with 386MAX my MS-Windows
>performance is greatly reduced.  Just to run MS-Windows, I needed to
>increase my memory from 4M to 8M.  Also, if I try to load any of my
>PC-Lan software I very quickly get out of memory errors.  I am
>wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if other people have
>encountered similar problems and perhaps found a way around them.

I have had my share of problems after installing 386MAX on my PC
which is running DR-DOS version 6.  I got file corruption problem
when I tried to copy files onto the floppy ( 3.5" or 5.25" ) in Windows 3.1.

After switching memory manager to the native DR-DOS memory manager
or QEMM, the problem disappeared.  Wonder if anyone else faced the same
problem in using the same combination of software?

 
-- 
                             Paul Kah Heng Phang
 Advanced User Interface Group, Computer and Communications Laboratory
 Information Technology Institute, National Computer Board, Singapore
     Email: paul@iti.gov.sg   Phone: (65) 7720908 Fax: (65) 7773043

rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu (RICHARD HOFFBECK) writes:


>Do yourself a favor and drop 386MAX into the nearest trash can.  QEMM is a
>bargin at twice its discounted price and of course himem/emm is included
>with DOS and Windows.  Compiling in a Windows DOS box isn't even too bad

The bad experiences this individual has had are not typical. 386Max can,
and does work properly in plenty of systems, including several that I use
with C/C++ 7.0. ( Did you know that with a monochrome card, 386Max can give
you more than 700K free low memory, after installing disk caches, shells,
and other options ? ) However, I will admit that there can easily be subtle
configuration problems that can wreak havoc with 386Max, QEMM, and probably 
all the other memory managers. You may be interested to know that PC tested
several managers, including 386Max and QEMM. The essence of their rating was
that QEMM had some potential of recovering slightly more high DOS memory than
did 386Max, but that 386Max was the most dependable of all the products.
-- 
George Pontis ( geo@netcom.COM )

In article <1992Oct30.025344.9820@netcom.com>, geo@netcom.com (George Pontis) writes:
> rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu (RICHARD HOFFBECK) writes:
>  
>  
> >Do yourself a favor and drop 386MAX into the nearest trash can.  QEMM is a
> >bargin at twice its discounted price and of course himem/emm is included
> >with DOS and Windows.  Compiling in a Windows DOS box isn't even too bad
>  
> The bad experiences this individual has had are not typical. 

Both Microsoft and Qualitas acknowledge that 386MAX as shipped will not
work with the virtual memory manager included in the C 7.0 library. 
Qualitas as posted a series of patches on Compuserve intended to fix
the problem, but to date the problem persists.

>386Max can,
> and does work properly in plenty of systems, including several that I use
> with C/C++ 7.0. 

Really, try this quick code segment:

	_vmhnd_t memhnd ;
	for( i=0 ; i < 40 ; i++)
	   memhnd = vmalloc( 20000) ;

Now try and run it under 386MAX.  If the vm handler is initialized to use
XMS memory, you get a hung machine.  If you use EMS or disk based vm, it
will usually hang when you exit the program.  If you have the misfortune
of using EMS based virtual memory and you are using smartdrv, you'll find
that the disk cache has been corrupted.
 	
>( Did you know that with a monochrome card, 386Max can give
> you more than 700K free low memory, after installing disk caches, shells,
> and other options ? ) 

So does QEMM and I suspect will most reasonable third party memory managers.
Probably more importantly, QEMMs Stealth mode lets me get all of my network
drivers in high memory and still leave 626K free on a VGA system.  The best
386MAX could do was around 512K. Granted Pathworks uses a LOT of memory for
drivers.

> You may be interested to know that PC tested
> several managers, including 386Max and QEMM. The essence of their rating was
> that QEMM had some potential of recovering slightly more high DOS memory than
> did 386Max, but that 386Max was the most dependable of all the products.

I read the PC review and was looking forward to having a chance to look at
386MAX; but remember, the PC Magazine review was prior to the widespread use
of DMPI. I know it doesn't work well on my machine, and judging from the
traffic on the Windows/C++/etc group here and the questions being fielded on
Compuserve by the Microsoft support people, I am not the only one that had
a problem.  

In the mean time, I don't use it and our beta testers have been advised that
we will not support 386MAX until we have a version that actually works.  Its
hard enough to find the bugs that I introduce without having to constantly
questioning the supporting tools.

--rick

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard Hoffbeck               INTERNET: rwh@moose.cccs.umn.edu |
| Colon Cancer Control Study     ATT     : (612) 627-4151         |
| University of Minnesota        CIS     : 72406,521              |
| Minneapolis, MN 55455                                           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

promislo@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (mark.r.promislow) writes:
: I am using MS-C/C++ 7.0 with the Qualitas 386MAX memory manager
: that MS packaged with it.  MS-C/C++ 7.0 requires either 386MAX or
: MS-Windows to run their compiler.
: 
: The problem that I am having is if I boot with 386MAX my MS-Windows
: performance is greatly reduced.  Just to run MS-Windows, I needed to
: increase my memory from 4M to 8M.  Also, if I try to load any of my
: PC-Lan software I very quickly get out of memory errors.  I am
: wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if other people have
: encountered similar problems and perhaps found a way around them.
: 
: I have tried calling both Microsoft and Qualitas, but after many hours
: of waiting I finally wrote letters.  So far no responses.
: 

Some good news, if you have, or prefer QEMM over 386MAX, is that Quarterdeck
recently released a DMPI server addition for QEMM. It is free from their
forum on CI$, and requires QEMM to run. I have not personally tried it, but
it is supposed to work with MSC 7.0. So chuck your 386MAX, and use QEMM
instead!

Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies ATE   UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
1601 Technology Drive		CIS:	72401,276
San Jose, Ca. 95110             Voice: (408)437-5254  FAX: (408)437-5246