Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 16:28:37 EDT
From: peprbv AT cfa0 DOT harvard DOT edu (Bob Babcock)
To: jde AT Unify DOT Com
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Re: Performance
Reply-To: babcock AT cfa DOT harvard DOT edu

> I notice a lot of disk chatter during that time, but I can`t figure
> out what it`s doing. (I don`t THINK it`s swapping, with 9M RAM...)

Several suggestions, the first 3 more for the big build than for hello-world:
1. Move include files to the RAM disk.
2. Try increasing DOS buffers.  I found this vital for linking in a directory
   containing many files.
3. Replace the ram disk with combi.sys which is both a ram disk and a disk
   cache.  Available at SimTel mirrors such as oak.oakland.edu:
     Directory SimTel/msdos/diskutil/
      Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
     ==============================================
     combi113.zip  B   48184  930509  RAM disk & disk cache sharing XMS memory
4. Use the -v (verbose) option to gcc and watch the steps being printed out
   while listening to the disk activity.
5. To test whether you are swapping, set go32tmp to point to the ram disk and
   see whether disk activity decreases.  If still in doubt, look for an
   erased swap file on the ram disk after the compile completes.