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▓▓ PRESENTS ▓▓
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▓▓ ANSIT! Version 1.00 ▓▓
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▓▓ Copyright (c) 1992 Steve Danielsson ▓▓
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▓▓ BENCHMARK DOCUMENTATION ▓▓
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CONTENTS OF THIS FILE
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OVERVIEW.................... What ANSIT is and why you want to use it.
USAGE....................... How to use the program.
BENCHMARK DESCRIPTION....... Detailed description of the tests
performed by ANSIT.
ADDITIONAL NOTES............ A few notes on the interpretation of
the benchmark results.
ADVANCED OPTIONS............ ANSIT commandline arguments to run in
auto-mode. Programmers should be interrested.
FINAL WORD.................. How to reach me and my thanks.
OVERVIEW
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There are a lot of ANSI drivers on the PD/SW market, and most of
them are much faster then ANSI.SYS - but which one is the fastest?
ANSIT! gives you the answer. It's a benchmark program testing how
fast your machine (or your current ANSI driver, actually) can
execute ANSI escape sequences, screen writes and scrolls.
So load an ANSI driver and run ANSIT! You can compare different
ANSI drivers to see which one is the fastest on your machine.
Besides, it's fun. I tried to make this program look pretty,
not just execute.
Is it really worth the trouble to test an ANSI driver, install
another one, reboot the machine, test it and so on ?
The answer is an unconditional: Yes!
Look at the file INDEX.RES. It's a result file produced by ANSIT
on a 12 MHz AT 286. Four popular ANSI drivers are tested, and as
you can see, the fastest one does screen writes 4 times (!) faster
than the slowest one. Four times faster screen writes is worth some
trouble! (You could beep up the screen writes by using Shadow RAM
BIOS or a software BIOS, but it's preferable to use a ANSI driver
that takes care of this itself).
Note however that the results in the INDEX.RES file is valid for
that machine only, don't take them for granted.
The same ANSI drivers may (and propably will) perform different
on your machine, with your graphics card and your setup.
For the curious user I've included REF.RES
This is a result file for different machines, all tested with
ANSI.SYS loaded in a 'clean' setup. There is no need or real
interrest in compairing your machine to other machines but if
you want to do it for fun, look at this file.
The ANSI driver you're testing must be able to handle most standard
ANSI sequences, but don't worry - I haven't seen one that doesn't!
This program won't look that fancy on a monocrome monitor, you'll
need color to really enjoy it, but the test is just as valid.
All in all, ANSIT is the complete ANSI workout. It tests everything
the ANSI driver does (with the exception of keyboard redefinition).
It also tests the speed of screen writes/scrolling so it can be used
to benchmark Software BIOS replacements as well as ANSI drivers.
If you don't have a clear understanding on what a ANSI driver is
or how DOS handles screen output, I recommend you to read the ANSI
TUTORIAL file included (ANSITUT.DOC), right away.
USAGE
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Program usage is simple, enter ANSIT <return> and you'll see
the first menu. Select ESCape to abort testing or <S> to start
the benchmark program. Five different tests are performed as
described below.
When all the five tests are executed, you'll see a graph
displaying the current ANSI performance.
The 'Speed Index' values given represents the speed of your
machine's ANSI processing. Higher value = faster ANSI.
The Speed Index scale will not show the entire scale of 0 to 14.
Instead you will see the part of the scale valid to your machine.
That is, the scale could go from 0 - 6, 5 - 11 or whatever is
enough to display all your index values.
Now you may choose to Exit or Write a report file to disk.
The reportfile option will create a textfile called ANSIT.REP
and write the Speed Index values for all tests to the file.
You will be asked to name the test, this isn't a filename but
a name written to the report file.
ANSIT checks for the existance of the reportfile before creating,
if it already exist, ANSIT will append to it. This will
create a neat table if more than one benchmark is executed.
The built-in ANSI file display timer:
To display an ANSI animation or textfile, enter:
ANSIT <filename> [<times>]
<filename> is the name/path of the file to display.
<times> is (optional) times to display the file.
Default is 1 time.
For further information on this function, see the next chapter.
You may interrupt the benchmark by pressing Ctrl-C / Ctrl-Break.
BENCHMARK DESCRIPTION
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What does this benchmark measure, really ?
It measures the time it takes for your machine to perform
different ANSI escape sequences, text and character output
and scrolling of the screen.
The speed of the computer does, of course, affect the result,
but the most important is the speed of the graphics card and
in particular the ANSI driver loaded. Needless to say, the
faster your machine/graphics card/ANSI driver can perform these
actions the faster screen output you'll get.
Benchmarks are often "theoretical". This is strait forward.
If a test is performed faster with one ANSI-driver than with
another, the output really IS faster. Simple and fool proof!
Note that programs using direct screen writes is bypassing the
ANSI driver, writing directly to the screen. The ANSI performance
only affects applications writing to STDOUT and/or using ANSI
escape sequences. All DOS funtions does this, so the ANSI driver
performace does count when typing textfiles, displaying ANSI
files, directory listing etcetera.
Now, let's examine the different tests in detail.
The tests performed by ANSIT is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Test 1: Position Cursor.
Test the ANSI escape sequence:
Position Cursor CUP ESC[n;nH
Set Graphics Rendition SGR ESC[n;nm
CUP and SGR is important to the overall speed
in applications using ANSI to change color of
the text and/or background or positioning the
cursor on the screen.
Test 2: Text Write.
This test reflect the speed of text string output
via the BIOS routines or ANSI device driver.
Also test ANSI sequence:
Set Graphics Rendition SGR ESC[n;nm
Test 3: Animation test.
Test ANSI sequences:
Cursor Up CUU ESC[nA
Cursor Down CUD ESC[nB
Cursor Forward CUF ESC[nC
Cursor Backward CUB ESC[nD
Cursor Save Position SCP ESC[s
Cursor Restore Pos. RCP ESC[u
This test reflects the speed of ANSI animations
in particular, but also any application using ANSI
to move the cursor across the screen. It also
measures the general speed of the ANSI drivers
parsing and handling of escape sequences.
Test 4: Screen scroll test.
Test ANSI driver or ROM BIOS screen scrolling speed.
The ANSI drivers/graphics card speed when scrolling
the entire screen is vital when displaying textfiles
via DOS and when performing directory listings etc.
Test 5: Single Character Output.
Test speed of single character screen write.
You will notice that different ANSI drivers aren't
always as good at single character output as they
are at text string output. This affects any output
of single characters via TTY as well as ANSI
animations etcetera.
ANSI animation / text file display Timer.
In addition to the five tests described above, it's possible
to time the display of an ANSI or ASCII file. This is useful as
an extra benchmark of the ANSI performance. It's impossible to
calculate a relative Index value for this test (since I don't
know how big the file you want to display is and what it does),
instead the time, in seconds, that the display took is the output.
To time large animated ANSI files is a good addition to the five
internal tests ANSIT can do for you. Comparing the time used
to display a large animation gives a good overall performance.
You may also load a plain textfile and display it a large number
of times to get a higher resolution of the screen scroll performance
than with the internal screen-scroll test.
Files are loaded into memory before they are displayed, so your
drive performance doesn't influence the test.
Files are limited to 255 Kbytes and an error message will be
displayed if ANSIT cannot allocate enough memory for the file.
This function gives you the possibility to create "user-defined"
tests, you can make an ANSI animation (with an ANSI editor) that
does exactly the things you want to test further and time it.
For information on how to use this function see the previous
chapter, Usage.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
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Note that ANSIT can be used to benchmark any speedup utility
affecting the screen writes or ANSI handling.
There are a lot of TSR's and Video BIOS drivers available.
Run ANSIT with your favorite ANSI-driver, install the speedup
program and run ANSIT again. Comparing the results will give
you an idea how effective the speedup utility is.
The Speed Index:
The index scale goes from 0 to 14.
I've calibrated the tests to get a standard value around 6.0
on a 12 MHz AT-286. The Index scale should be enough to measure
any machine from an 8088 XT to a 486 with a quick VGA card.
ANSIT has been tested on everything up to a 33 MHz 386.
Should you, however, get a 14+ value on your machine, concider this:
Your machine is so fast you will not notice any difference between
different ANSI drivers. Delete this program and all ANSI drivers but
one, install it and sit there with a happy smile on your face!
If your machine, ont the other hand, is so slow that you cannot raise
the index value above 0.0 with any driver and any setup:
Welcome to the nineties! Buy a (faster) computer (or a typewriter).
ADVANCED OPTIONS
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You may run ANSIT in AUTO mode by using commandline arguments.
This option was added mostly with regard to fellow programmers that
may want to use ANSIT to optimize something they are working on,
an ANSI.SYS replacement driver, Software Video BIOS or anything using
it's own ANSI interpretation or screen output routines.
Note that ANSIT won't display the performace screen when runned in
auto-mode. As soon as the selected tests are performed, ANSIT will write
to the resultfile and exit.
ANSIT will accept the following commandline arguments:
------------------------------------------------------
ANSIT [/?|H] [/A] [/1] [/2] [/3] [/4] [/5] [/C<comment>]
/? /H Display a short syntax help.
/A Run ANSIT in auto-mode, all five tests.
/1 - /5 Run ANSIT in auto-mode using these tests, any combination
of selected tests are possible.
/C<comment> Write this comment to the result file.
This is optional, if not entered ANSIT will write AUTO-RUN
as comment to the results.
NO SPACES in this argument, use underline or something!
Examples:
ANSIT /3 /4 /5 /CMy_Driver Will run tests 3, 4 and 5 and write the
comment "My_Driver" to the resultfile.
ANSIT /A Will run all five tests and write the
default comment "AUTO-RUN" to the resultfile.
ANSIT /3 /CTestrun_6 Will run test 3 only, write "Testrun_6" as
comment in the resultfile.
With these options you can test exacly and only the ANSI routines you
are interrested in. Also you may write a batchfile to run ANSIT several
times (since it will exit automaticly, when runned in auto-mode).
FINAL WORD
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I do appriciate comments on the program, even if it's just a
message saying "Hey, I like it!" (or even "It sucks!").
Any comments, questions or suggestions can be Netmailed to me at:
Steve Danielsson
FidoNet : 2:201/270 (PoleWare Support Centre)
VirNet : 9:462/127 (---------- " ----------)
SuperNet: 42:1001/111 (---------- " ----------)
IntlNet : 57:4601/107 (---------- " ----------)
Or Postcarded to: Steve Danielsson
Glasmalarv. 5
S-12231 Enskede
SWEDEN
Last but not least, for endless patience when beta-testing this
and other programs for me, my Very Special Thanks to:
Jonas Ekelund (SysOp PoleWare Support Centre)
Ulf Ekstrom (SysOp EDKX PCBoard BBS)
(These guys have nightmares in animated ANSI, but they still
won't quit on the job!)
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ANSIT! is Freeware. You may use and spread it freely, but may not
sell it or include it in commercial packages. You may not change
the program or this documentation in any way.
Please, include the DOC file when distributing the program.
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