🚀 go-pugleaf

(the Problem mentioned in the subject line comes after the discussion of
 multi-tasking)

In article  gallo@cs.albany.edu (Andrew Gallo) writes:
>
>	I'm considering running Windows 3.0.  I've read the "frequently 
>asked questions" file but still have a few questions:

... (I'll just deal with the multi-tasking questions - and add one of my own)

>in greater detail what each is and what each does?
>
>	2) Can somebody explain the interaction between Windows and DOS?  For
>example, I run Procomm for terminal emulation, not a Windows product.  
...
>
>	4) Windows allows time slicing, right?  This is REAL multiprocessing, 
>right?  Also, it is my understanding that you can assign priorities to jobs.
>Is this correct?
>

Windows 3.0 in its fullest mode ('386 enhanced' - only available on
386 processors) uses two kinds of multitasking.

1. for Windows applications (those that do not use a DOS command.com shell)
   Windows simply performs tasks in sequence, ignoring how long any
   one task takes. If your window takes an hour to re-draw, and you 
   cover it and uncover it - forcing a redraw - you have no option
   that I know of to interrupt it.  Many (most?) commercial applications
   obviously have had to deal with this problem on their own, but
   it is the _application_ than has to do it, not the operating
   system (Windows 3.0).

2. for DOS applications running in a window, Windows offers true
   'preemptive' multitasking, that is, Windows will interrupt the
   application every so often no matter what it is doing and let another
   task access to resources.  This lets you have two scrolling windows
   open at once, say one to run a compile of a library and another to
   edit your source file.


   THE PROBLEM:  When I run two DOS windows on my computer(1),
   within twenty minutes or less  the system crashes.
   Ususally, I am running a make and editing a file as described above.
   The symptom is some keystrokes from the edit window show up in the
   make window, the make window crashes DOS in that window, then very
   soon Windows reports an unrecoverable error, etc.  I have had this
   happen several times, enough to convince me to be very suspicious of
   using Windows in a working environment (I do Unix work most of the
   time, I am curious about Windows and am writing an application just
   for the experience).

   Any comments?

1. My computer: a AMI BIOS 16 MHz 386SX machine with 5 megabytes of
   RAM - Windows HIMEM.SYS installed with no errors or warnings.


Rick Coates                           ...!tektronix!tessi!agora!rickc
Contract HW/SW engineer (Graphics - Sun - ASIC design - imbedded systems)