Subject: DOS-Extenders (Re: OS/2 port of REND386)

From: [email-masked] (Sting)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 93 14:51:54 EST

> From [email-masked] Thu Dec  2 14:31:25 1993
> To: [email-masked] (Sting)
> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: OS/2 port of REND386 
> Date: Thu, 02 Dec 93 12:12:53 -0700
> X-Mts: smtp
> Content-Length: 758
> 
> About DOS-extenders, I've had bad experiences with them.  Mainly
> Pharlap.  (It wiped out my SuperStor partition - twice in the same
> week!  I removed SuperStor, and the computer still crashed angd lost chains, etc.!)

	I have never used a dos extender but exactly how would you transform
a simple program to us one?  Or does just linking one in will intercept all
memory calls and use the flat memory model, accessing extended and expanded when
the space is needed?  Do you have to specifically ask for a memory allocation
in the extended and expanded segments?   (I also wonder how this can affect
your disk partition.)

> 
> Linux isn't exactly the choice for what I view as the general user. 
> For example, the general user needs DOS, Win3.1 and OS/2 applications
> available at the same time with a 48633 w/4MB Ram and a 120M HD. 
> (Okay, so I'm using myself as a general user...  So sue me!)  A DOS
> extender can't even RUN under Windows without about 8MB of Ram, and
> Linux doesn't do Windows (correct me if I'm wrong).

	I agree that, although linux may be a great OS, it is not highly available
to most users.  It is unfortunate that the better product is not the one who wins
but who has the biggest adv. campaign.  (My political $.02)   Windose and OS/2
would be a great first step.

	What steps could be taken to improve rendering speed, besides the easy way
out by making the scenes simpler?  I really want to push rend386.  I supposed, 
once the x586's will be readily available it should run alot faster.  Also,
once PCI becomes the standard on motherboards this will greatly improve the
graphics throughput.  I guess I can only dream....

> 
> I may not have OS/2 yet, but I'm planning on getting it in the near future.
> 
> Well, once I can free up at least 45M on my 120M HD!

	Good luck!  [B^)

> [email-masked]

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