Mail Archives: opendos/1997/02/02/07:34:59
On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, Ian 'DrDebug' Day wrote:
> >RIGHT ON!!!! Thats the good olefashioned PC user attitude I like to
> >hear!!! I HATE programs that do screen output like this:
> >
> >write("C:\>");
> >
> >then write() calls superprint() which calls DOS which has been
> >intercepted by ANSI.SYS, then the BIOS, then... ...zzzzzz...
>
> Exactly! Two things have always bugged me:
>
> 1) No matter how fast machines get, they always take f***ing ages to
> boot!
This is rediculously true! My machine is a '95 486/dx2/66 and if I
turn Video ROM Shadowing on, DOS boots up pretty fast (15-25 seconds),
however if I put VidROM shadowing OFF, then DOS takes 2 MINUTES to
boot up!!!! After the memory test, the machine just sits there like
it is frozen for a minute and a half, then it starts working. Damned
shitty machine if you ask me!!!!! (ACER machine with ACER SHITTY
BIOS). I *HAVE* to disable video shadow for DOSemu to work right in
Linux, so now regular DOS is REALLY SLOW!!!! QEMM refuses to shadow
my ROM's too, says it can't because my system sucks. Go figure.
> 2) No matter how fast machines get, DOS can only manage to do a DIR at
> 8088 crawl speed.......
Well, with ROM shadow turned ON, my dir listings wizz by so fast I
have to pipe them to less. With shadow off however, SLOW SLOW
SLOW!!!!!
> Ah, sudden thought (I get those sometimes), perhaps it's a conspiracy by
> Microsoft to point to the fact that DOS is old and out-dated, and we
> should be using Windows.... So, come on guys; let's make OpenDOS
> something to reckon with, then we can close Windows for good.
Naw, I don't think there is a conspiracy like that, I mean Win95 is
even SLOWER at doing anything, so I think M$ is pretty much following
along in their standard tradition.
> >4DOS does direct writes (depending on how you set it up).
>
> Yeah, but most other stuff that goes through DOS is pretty naff.
It depends on what programs you're running and wether or not you
shadow your video ROM's. I'm hoping that DOSemu can use a ROM image
instead of my actual ROM, that way I can have the best of both worlds.
I'll have to read those manpages!
Take care.
Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant | My webpage has moved and my address has changed.
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
mailto:mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca
LINUX: Lost your video after running a game or DOSemu, email me for fix.
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