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From:	"Michal H. Tyc" <mht AT bttr-software DOT de>
Organization:	BTTR Software
Date:	Sat, 29 Nov 2003 12:32:31 +0100
X-Mailer:	Arachne V1.73;GPL
To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: several technical problems
MIME-Version:	1.0
Message-Id:	<E1AQ3LZ-0007cX-Lw@mailout.artfiles.de>
Reply-To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 14:11:12 +1100 (EST), DONALD PEDDER wrote:

> Uh, I can try. :-) The CPU is a Celeron 466MHz, my system-board is
> "PC100 slot 1/socket 370 M741lmrt", AMIBIOS, memory is 64Mb,
> sound-cards,etc. are built-in to the system-board.

Well, there is a possibility that something on your board is
incompatible with DR-DOS Multitasker (or rather with EMM386
multitasking kernel, to be precise) -- the board seems to be
newer than DR-DOS. What exactly happens if you try to enable
multitasking (DEVICE=EMM386.EXE MULTI [...]  then load TASKMGR
without /S)?

>> What is the GREEN command in your AUTOEXEC?

> It's just a little pascal program that sets my text-colour to green.
> Unfortunately, as soon as I use an app (like the editor) it reverts to
> white again. I've still not yet found out how to permanently set it to
> green.

So it is definitely harmless for TASKMGR.
Installing ANSI.SYS and inserting escape sequences for changing ink
color into your PROMPT may help a bit. Please read about ANSI and
PROMPT in DOSBOOK.

> Using HIMEM.SYS worked, but there's still one bug. I can swap sessions
> okay with multiple editors open, but if I am logged on and swap from that
> session it hangs up the modem. :-( If I can sort out my memory shortage
> though then it's not a problem.
ÑX:!
This huge BITCOM program is responsible for your connection, right?
It is loaded in one of the tasks and when you switch this task out,
it stops running and no longer controls your modem. If it was loaded
before TASKMGR, it would (possibly) work better. Anyway, due to its
size, it would be rather inconvenient. And if BITCOM is unaware of
task switchers, you could experience crashes when switching tasks
or trying to access modem from a few tasks simultaneously. (This is
in no way specific to DR-DOS Task Switcher, it is due to the way
that DOS task switchers work in general -- MS-DOS 5.0 DOSShell
would probably behave quite similarly.)

[...]

> Largest executable program:  304,048 ( 297K )
> Total Free DOS memory:       395,744 ( 386K )

> This looks very handy. :-) This says I have 46Mb available via XMS -
> how do I make the programs use that?

The programs that run in (8086-compatible) Real Mode of CPU can
use extended memory only as a swap space (to move some data/code
back and forth between lower 640 Kb and extended memory), but of
course only if given program has such a feature built-in.

There are also programs which run in Protected Mode (either 16-bit,
on 80286 and above, or 32-bit, on 80386 and above), which can use
all memory directly. But they are different programs.

For example, if you have some Turbo Pascal source which doesn't
mess with hardware and low-level stuff (no ASM insertions, direct
access to BIOS, etc.), it should compile successfully under both
Borland's TP and FreePascal. In the first case, you get a Real Mode
executable program which can use directly only the low 640 Kb, in
the second -- a 32-bit Protected Mode executable which runs on
80386 and above only, but can use directly all 46 Mb of your free
extended memory.

> Also, for something that terminates
> without staying resident, how would I find out how much memory it is
> using?

Difficult. Some information about minimum memory requirements is
stored in EXE file header, but the program may need to allocate some
memory after it is loaded.

> Like? I'm not really into the technical side, so if you want to find
> something out you need to tell me what commands to run or where I'm
> looking. e.g. I had never used the mem command until just now.

Nothing very unusual. You can probably eliminate SETVER, find
a smaller CD-ROM driver (try, e.g., Acer/BenQ VIDE-CDD.SYS) or at
least try to load them high (HIDEVICE=... or DEVICEHIGH=...), replace
DRMOUSE with CTMOUSE (smaller and better), but it won't give you much
more conventional memory, because BITCOM is such a huge moster.

> Is there a DOS utility I can run which'll make sure I don't have any
> LFN's hanging around on the disk? I want to keep it clean so that I can
> run delwatch/diskopt on it.

There is something called SULFNBK (or similar) in Windows 9x, but
I don't remember details now. If I need to have DOS and Windows on
the same machine, I keep them on separate primary partitions.
DOS partition is hidden when Windows run and no LFNs are stored.

> I'm using the DR-DOS editor - that can only handle one file at a time,
> right??

Right.

Hope this helps,

Michal

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