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- Release notes for WITS v1.0
- =============================
-
- System requirements for running WITS
- ====================================
- The test computer should have at least four megabytes of memory and five
- megabytes of space on the hard disk drive. Since actual application
- programs are used for the test(s) space must be available on the disk
- drive for temporary and swap files.
-
- *************************************
- WITS WILL ONLY RUN UNDER WINDOWS 3.1.
-
- Before running WITS close ALL Windows
- 3.1 applications
- *************************************
-
- Installing WITS
- ===============
- Run SETUP.EXE on the WITS disk from within Windows. The default directory
- is C:\WITS. You may chose another. At the end of the install the
- program files will be in the choosen directory while WITS.INI will
- be in the main Windows directory as well as *.VBX files,
- STATUS.DLL and VBRUN200.DLL.
-
- If you were a beta site and if, after installing WITS, you receive
- error message about wrong version software or other strange and
- inexplicable error messages you will need to manually clean off the
- old copy, especially *.VBX, GSW.EXE and GSWDLL.DLL files. After
- doing this re-install WITS. If you still have problems contact
- us via Compuserve at 71250,2146.
-
- Major functions of WITS
- =======================
- WITS is intended to measure graphics board performance in actual
- Windows applications. These applications include:
-
- Microsoft Word for Windows (version 1.x & 2.x)
- Microsoft Excel (version 2.1, 3.0 & 4.0)
- Corel Draw! (version 3.0)
- Aldus PhotoStyler (version 1.0)
- QuarkXpress (version 3.1)
-
- WITS drives the application programs via a combination of DDE and simulated
- keystrokes. WITS measures time taken for various graphics board functions
- and reports these back at the end of the test. Care has been taken to
- ensure that other factors in an application programs performance, for
- example disk access times, are excluded from measurement.
-
- The version features encrypted script files (*.SCR) and password-protected
- data files. Encrypting the files ensures that users will not be able to
- alter them to their advantage.
-
- We suggest that all other Windows programs be shut down before running
- WITS, even ones being tested. The issue is that resources Windows
- allocates while a program is running are still available when the program
- restarts. This will have its greatest effect on the font efficiency
- measurements discussed below.
-
- WITS is written in Visual Basic and the Professional Toolkit for VB.
- Engenious Solutions (510.531.5681) provided the driver profiler software
- and the refresh rate monitoring software. The driver time measurements
- are via a reduced functionality version of their Perform video driver
- profiling product.
-
- Refresh rate measurement
- ========================
- The routine for measuring video refresh rate works ONLY for VGA boards.
- If you are using a coprocessor-based board, for example a TI 34020 board,
- this routine will not work. It will measure the refresh rate of the VGA
- board used to boot up but not the coprocessor board when running Windows.
-
- Word for Windows notes
- ======================
- WITS will open Word for Windows and set 'Draft' mode to off
- (no checkmark). It will also set 'Print Preview' to single page preview
- ('Two Pages' should show when in Print Preview mode).
-
- When the test is finished the results are presented in both a chart
- and grid. You will notice that the labels for each row are, for
- example, "Page Scroll" and "Page scroll - cached". This refers
- to the fact that, during the first page scroll, fonts are read in
- for proper display. Once the fonts are loaded, or cached, the scroll
- operation can proceed more quickly. The cached scroll times are used
- to generate the total time of the test. The release version of WITS
- will compute the font efficiency, or time ratio, of uncached to
- cached fonts.
-
- Excel notes
- ===========
- The Excel test tests both text and graphics performance.
-
- CorelDRAW! notes
- ================
- Before running WITS to test CorelDRAW! startup CorelDRAW! and load
- the file C:\WITS\EYE.CDR and watch for an error message about "Bad
- or missing fonts." If you receive this error message simply save
- the drawing as is to prevent the error from occuring during the
- WITS test.
-
- ******************************************************
- IF YOU RECEIVE AN "UNSUPPORTED MS-DOS VERSION" MESSAGE
- ******************************************************
-
- This error message can be caused by loading FILES high using QEMM-386.
- To correct the error remove the LOADHI FILES=x from the
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
-
- Known problems
- ==============
-
- Driver timing
- -------------
- Invoking the driver timing option may cause the background colors and
- patterns to change. The problem will go away when driver timing is
- turned off.
-
- Norton Desktop for Windows
- --------------------------
- WITS may not load if the Norton Desktop for Windows is the default
- program manager. If so, switch back to the standard Windows 3.1 Program
- Manager for the duration of the tests.
-
- No Windows printer installed
- ----------------------------
- You must have a printer installed for Windows even if you do not
- intend to print out the results. Certain characteristics of the
- printer are taken into account by WITS so it must be able to access
- the printer to get the information.
-
- Small font on the graph labels
- ------------------------------
- This is due to the way the chart display software functions. It is
- not possible for WITS to override the font size it chooses for the chart
- labels. Since this software is provided by a third-party software company
- we are not able to control the problem.
-
- General Protection Fault when maximizing results graph
- ------------------------------------------------------
- Some high resolution boards may cause a problem if the Results form is
- maximized to the full screen size and then the graph is maximized. This
- is due to the display driver for the graphics board.
-
-
- Final Note
- ==========
- As WITS is freeware there is no formal support available. If you
- discover a significant bug or failure mode, or have ideas how to
- improve it, please contact us on Compuserve at 71250,2146.
-