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TAME(r) release 3.34 Shareware Documentation Copyright 1988-1996 by David G. Thomas Tame is a registered trademark of David G. Thomas ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction Tame will help you get maximum performance from your multitasking environment by speeding up the processing of your applications. TAME works with many MS-DOS based multitasking environments. In fact, there are special hooks in TAME for use with most of the popular multitaskers including Windows, OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 95, DESQview, Double Dos, Omniview, VM/386 and PC/MOS. Installation The exact procedure to install Tame varies slightly depending on the multi-tasker that is being used. See below for detailed instructions for installing Tame in your environment. A generic installation that applies to all multi-taskers is as follows. Copy the distribution files onto the hard drive. You may find it convenient to place the Tame directory in the path or to copy the Tame files into a directory that is in the path. Another option is to copy just TAME.EXE into a pathed directory, and set the TAME environment variable to point to the directory where the rest of the Tame files are. Tame should be loaded into each DOS task. To do this, type the following command line. TAME /I Other options may be used to optimize performance if necessary. I suggest you try the following. TAME /I 9 If this makes the program run noticeably more slowly, try: TAME /I 5 If this makes the program run noticeably more slowly, try: TAME /I 1 A complete list of Tame options appears at the end of this document. Why do you need TAME? Using a multitasking environment increases your productivity because you can run more than one application at a time. While you are running a word processor in the "foreground", you can calculate a spreadsheet or print a report in the "background". Although you appear to be getting several things done at the same time, multitasking can actually slow down your system. This will continue to get worse as you run more applications at the same time. Most DOS applications are designed to run in a single-tasking environment. The application acts as if it is the only program running on the computer. It spends most of its time waiting for an instruction, and very little time carrying out the instruction. While the application is waiting, it queries the various devices (keyboard, mouse, etc.) to see if you have sent an instruction. Then it checks again and again in a continuous cycle. This constant checking is known as "polling". In just a few seconds between key strokes, a program may poll the keyboard hundreds or even thousands of times. All this polling uses a lot of the CPUs processing time. In a single-tasking DOS environment with only one program competing for CPU time, polling doesn't affect performance. There are no other applications competing for CPU time. But when you are multitasking, this constant polling wastes a lot of CPU time. The background program is continually polling while you are trying to work in the foreground. This unnecessary loss of CPU time from your foreground program makes it perform much slower. That's where TAME can improve your performance. How does TAME work? TAME re-allocates how the CPU spends its time. It applies more CPU time to active tasks (like printing or spell-checking) and less time to idle tasks that are merely polling. In essence, TAME speeds up your "active" work by slowing down your "inactive" work. TAME monitors what a program is doing. TAME notices when a program is idle and its only activity is polling the keyboard. After enough polls, TAME can see that the program is wasting time and tells the multitasker to move on to the next task. When the multitasker returns to the idle task, TAME will be less patient than before and force a task switch as soon as the program starts polling again. When the program does something active -- such as processing keyboard input, performing disk I/O or changing the video screen -- TAME redirects the CPU's attention to it. TAME detects the activity and boosts the program's priority for about a tenth of a second. The priority boost prevents TAME from causing a task switch during that period of time. You may configure TAME to go so far as to instruct the multitasker not to waste any more time on a background task until it is brought into the foreground. Other TAME options may be used to help it correctly identify and deal with programs that are wasting your CPU time by polling input devices. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- License and Registration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are given a 30 day trial period to evaluate the effectiveness of Tame. If you decide to keep it, fill in the registration form (REGISTER.FRM), and send it with $20 to the following address. David G. Thomas 4290 Bells Ferry Road Suite 106 Room 576 Kennesaw, GA 30144-1300 For more information, write to tame@mindspring.com or visit the web page at http://www.mindspring.com/~dgthomas/tame.htm After receiving the registration fee, I will send you a diskette with a version of the program that has no delay screens or timeout period. It also includes the full printed documentation which is much more extensive than that provided in this file. NOTE: Checks must be made out to David G. Thomas, and payable in U.S. funds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Installation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Installing TAME Tame is installed onto the hard drive by uncompressing the Tame archive file (TAME333.ZIP). Once TAME is installed, there are several ways to run it. With both DESQview and Windows 3.x, you may automatically add TAME to each program's window description, or you may manually edit each description to run TAME. With other multitaskers, you may load TAME at the DOS command line or from within a batch file. The quick start section is a starting point that quickly produces excellent results. You'll effortlessly achieve almost all of TAME's potential benefits. When you feel comfortable with TAME, try the advanced features to achieve optimal performance of your system. Quick Start Follow the quick start instruction to run TAME with the multitasker you are using. If you use DESQview or Windows 3.x, you should then review the advanced setup options that follow the quick start. When your setup is complete, refer to the section on how to test TAME with your applications. DESQview Quick Start To automatically add TAME to DESQview, change to the C:\DV directory. Now run the TAMEDVP update program to add TAME to the selected DVP window description. For example, the following command lines add TAME to the default Big DOS (BD) window. CD \DV TAMEDVP BD TAME will be in effect the next time the window is opened. Any existing BD windows will need to be closed and re-opened for TAME to affect them. Continue to run the TAMEDVP program for each DVP window description that needs TAME. Note that TAME will automatically add 10K to the memory size and modify the program options for the window you specify. See the DESQview Advanced Setup for an explanation of the options that are automatically modified by TAMEDVP. Windows 3.x Quick Start To automatically add TAME to Windows, change to the C:\Window directory. Now run the TAMEPIF update program. This will add TAME to the selected PIF window description. The following command lines add TAME to the Window's default window (_DEFAULT). CD \WINDOWS TAMEPIF _DEFAULT TAME will be in effect the next time the window is opened. Any existing _DEFAULT windows will need to be closed and re-opened for TAME to affect them. Continue to run the TAMEPIF program for each PIF window description that needs TAME. Note that TAME will automatically add 10K to the memory size and modify the program options for the PIF window you specify. See the Windows Advanced Setup section for an explanation of the options that are automatically modified by TAMEPIF. Other Multitaskers Quick Start First, make sure you are running in your multitasker. Then, load TAME at the DOS prompt from within a window (or task). Note that you may also load TAME from within a batch file, which is explained in the Placing TAME in a batch file section. To install the TAME resident (TSR) program that includes the pop-up screens, at the DOS prompt from within your multitasker, enter TAME /I. You may also load the smaller version of TAME by entering TAME /TINY /I. Now that TAME is active, load the application you want to run under TAME. For example, the following commands will load the TAME program that includes pop-up screens, and then load Lotus 123. TAME /I 123 Repeat these steps for each task you want to run with TAME. Then test them as described in a later section. DESQview Advanced Setup DESQview must be running before your begin. Press the DESQview system key (Default is Alt) to be sure you are at the DESQview menu. Press "OCP" for Open, Change a Program. From the list, select the program that you want to tame. Examine the Program field to see which program the window runs. If it is a command to run a batch file, then you may load the TAME TSR from within the batch file. (See the section on Placing TAME in a batch file.) Otherwise, you will need to change the DVP information as follows. Move the name of the program from the Program field to the Parameters field. Be sure to enter the program name before any parameters that were already in this field. Enter the TAME /RUN command prior to the program name. Now enter TAME in the Program field. (Note that the TAMEDVP program will automatically do this for you. If the DESQview "exit to DOS" option is set to NO, TAMEDVP will also add the /I option.) In the Parameters field, you may add any TAME options you want to run with this program. You must place the TAME options prior to the program name. The /RUN command must always be the last TAME command on the line, and must be entered just before the program name. For example, the following may be placed in the Parameter field to load the small TAME TSR, and then run Lotus 123. /TINY /RUN 123 You need to increase the memory given to the task by 10K if you want to use the TAME pop-up screens, or by 2K if you do not need this feature. If you don't specify the /TINY option when you run TAME, the 10K TAME TSR will automatically be loaded. (Note that the TAMEDVP program will automatically increase the memory for you.) You may also want to set the two advanced options for "Run in the background" and "Share CPU in foreground" to "Y". These two settings are frequently not used, but should work quite well with TAME. Press the space bar at the Change a Program screen to move to the Advanced Options screen. Repeat these steps for each application you want to run with TAME. Then test them as described in a later section. Windows Advanced Setup Windows must be running before you begin. Open the PIF editor window and edit the PIF file of the window that needs TAME. Examine the Program Filename field to see which program the window runs. If it is a command to run a batch file, then you may load the TAME TSR from within the batch file. (See the section on Placing TAME in a batch file.) Otherwise, you will need to change the PIF information as follows. Move the name of the program from the Program Filename field to the Optional Parameters field. Be sure to enter the program name before any parameters that were already in this field. Enter the TAME /RUN command prior to the program name. Now enter TAME in the Program field. (Note that the TAMEPIF program will automatically do this for you. If the PIF editor option to Close Window on Exit is set to NO, TAMEPIF will also add the /I option.) In the Optional Parameters field, you may add any TAME options you want to run with this program. You must place the TAME options prior to the program name. The /RUN command must always be the last TAME command on the line, and must be entered just before the program name. For example, the following may be placed in the Optional Parameter field to load the small TAME TSR, and then run Lotus 123. /TINY /RUN 123 You may also need to increase the memory given to the task by 10K if you want to use the TAME pop-up screens, or by 2K if you do not need this features. If you don't specify the /TINY option when you run TAME, the 10K TAME TSR will automatically be loaded. (Note that the TAMEPIF program will automatically increase the memory for you.) Repeat these steps for each application you want to run with TAME. Then test them as described in a later section. Placing TAME in a batch file Decide which TAME resident (TSR) program you want to use (the default TSR includes the pop-up screens, the other does not). To load the default TSR, use the TAME /I command. To load the smaller version of TAME, use the TAME /TINY /I command. For example, place the following commands in your batch file to load TAME and then run Lotus 123. TAME /I 123 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Testing TAME with your applications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAME can benefit nearly any program that uses CPU cycles to look for keyboard input. The best way to see if a program does this is to run a simple test. You should test all programs that you use regularly, including word processors, spreadsheets, editors, DOS shells, and communication programs. The following explains several ways to test a program to see if it needs TAME. Select the method you want to use. If TAME appears to be needed, but appears to have no effect, see Trouble Shooting in Appendix B. 1. Use a stopwatch This is the best way to measure TAME performance. Note that other ways to test the effectiveness of TAME may be more convenient, but they are measuring performance indirectly and may occasionally yield misleading results. First, open a single window (W1) running DOS and make sure no other window is open. If available in your multitasker, set the "Share the CPU" and "run in the background" options to Yes. Now, measure the time required to do a CPU or disk intensive operation. Choose any lengthy operation, such as copying a group of files. Run the operation once without timing it so that the effect of other system enhancements (such as a disk cache) may be eliminated. Run the operation again and record the time required. This is the optimal time, since no multitasking is taking place. Now open another window (W2) and run an application that is not tamed. Be sure this window (W2) is also set to "Share the CPU" and to "Run in the background". Switch to the original DOS window (W1) and time how long it takes to run the same operation in the foreground. Then time how long it takes the operation (W1) to run in the background with the application (W2) in the foreground. If the original operation (W1) takes longer than the optimal time, then the application (W2) is slowing it down. The application (W2) needs TAME. Note that you should expect a slightly slower time with the application running. But, anything that takes more than 5% longer is not acceptable and needs TAME. Exit the application (W2) and run TAME in that window (W2). Then run the application again in the window (W2) with TAME active. Switch to the original DOS window (W1) and time how long it takes to do the same operation in the foreground, and then again in the background. The timing should now be much closer to the original optimal time. TAME has prevented the idle application (W2) from degrading system performance. 2. Use a standard CPU benchmark This is a variation of the stopwatch method where you use a CPU benchmark to time execution of a CPU intensive operation. Use the same procedure, where lower stopwatch timing is equivalent to higher CPU speed ratings. NOTE: If you use Norton's System Information (SI) program for the benchmark, be sure it is version 4.5 or earlier. The new versions of this program are capable of computing nearly the same number without regard to whether the system is loaded. It may also erroneously report tamed systems to be slower than systems not running TAME. 3. Use the Geiger counter Another direct method is to run TAME with the /Geiger option. This method will give you an audible indication for the effectiveness of TAME. To do this, make sure no windows are open. Then open a DOS window and at the DOS prompt enter: TAME /GEIGER You will immediately hear steady ticking; the Geiger's audible reference that the CPU is processing. Now, open a second window and run the application you are testing. Be sure TAME is not present. If the ticks slow considerably, or if they become sporadic, the application in the foreground probably needs TAME. Now run TAME with the foreground application. The ticks probably are smoother and faster than before. This means TAME is keeping your background task running at nearly full speed, at least while you are not actively needing the CPU. 4. Check the visual indicators The monitor displays visual indicators to check system performance. To pop-up the monitor, press the hot-key sequence Alt-Ctrl-M. This hot-key will toggle the monitor on and off. If you are not using pop-up screens, load the monitor from the DOS prompt with the TAME /MOnitor command. The monitor appears as a small a box in the upper right corner of the screen. Four symbols appear in the box from left to right that indicate System status, Current task status, Polling status and Task switch status. The status that may appear in each of the four monitor positions indicate: S = System status: (?) don't know, (I)dle, (W)orking C = Current task: (I)dle, (W)orking, (i)dle switched, (K)ey read / = Spinner: continuously turns while the system is polling . = Task switch indicator: throbs as TAME causes task switches System status: A ? means that the system is awaiting keyboard input, but is not in a polling state. An I indicates that a program is running, but is currently in an idle state. A W means that a program is running and is actively processing. Current task: Both I and i indicate that the current task is idle, and a W means that there is active processing in the task. A K means that the task is wait for a key stroke, but the task is not in the polling mode. Spinner: While an application is polling, the spinner will constantly turn. When the application is active, the spinner will stop. For example, the spinner stops when you are at the DOS prompt, or when an application is actively printing, sorting, calculating, etc. Task switch indicator: A constant throb means an application is inactive. The throb will stop when the application is active. Use the spinner and task switch indicator to monitor an application. When a task is idle, the spinner should turn and the task switch indicator should throb. When active processing occurs, both should stop. If an application is inactive and the spinner is turning but the task switch indicator does not throb, you need to lower the idle threshold for that application. 5. Check the TAME polling statistics Evaluate whether or not TAME is effective by running the application with TAME and then checking the statistics generated with the TAME /Status command. To test the program, TAME must be run in a multitasking window. At the DOS prompt, type the following command line. TAME /I Now, run your program in this window and work in it for a short time. Then exit normally. Type the following command line to obtain a summary of TAME activity. TAME /Status The displayed totals include the number of keyboard polls that the program performed. If this number is small or zero, then TAME may not be needed with the application. On the other extreme, some keyboard-hungry programs can generate thousands of keyboard polls in just a few seconds. In this case, the application needs TAME. Applications that are DESQview-aware Most sophisticated programs poll the keyboard. A few of these programs have made themselves DESQview-aware, meaning that they recognize and work with DESQview. Most are sufficiently DESQview aware to run in a window, but still hog the CPU. These programs need TAME as much as ones that are not DESQview-aware. To be fully DESQview-aware, an application must release its time slice while it is polling the keyboard. TAME is normally not needed when one of these fully-aware programs are used in DESQview. However, only a few programs are fully DESQview-aware. With the ones that are, TAME can transform their DESQview-awareness into Windows-awareness, or awareness of any other supported multitasker. This is done by specifying the /DVAWARE option. When all programs that are run in a specific window will be DESQview-aware, you may turn off the options that cause automatic recognition of polling programs (except for communication programs. The following command line tells TAME that all the programs will be DESQview-aware. TAME /DVAWARE /NKI /II NONE It is possible that a program uses DESQview/Topview functions that are not supported with TAME. TAME can fool these programs into thinking they are in DESQview, but if they try unsupported functions, they may crash the system. If ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Functional Option Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Usage: TAME /option [value] /option {value} ... [] = required, {} = optional Common Options: /CLeaR /Help {option} /Install [1,5,9] /NoMonitor /OFf /ON /RUN [command_line] /SETtings [1,5,9] /Status /Uninstall Tuning Options: /BackGround /NoBackGround [count] /Boost [key_boost work_boost] /Geiger {delay time freq spinner} /Idle_Indicate [first rest] /Idle_Indicate [first rest] {POLLS} /Idle_Indicate [Key,Time,PSP,NoWork,NONE] /NoIdle_Indicate [Key,Time,PSP,NoWork] /KeyIdle [count] /NoKeyIdle /KeyWaitPoll /NoKeyWaitPoll /TaskSwitchREPeat [count] /Timer /NoTimer /Work_Indicate [Com1,Com2,Com3,Com4,IRQn,SERial,PARallel,NONE] /Work_Indicate [work_boost] /NoWork_Indicate [Com1,Com2,Com3,Com4,IRQn,SERial,PARallel] /NoWorkTime [first] {repeat} /NoWorkRange [bytes] Other Options: @filename /CLONE [file command_line] /DVAware /NoDVAware /Hot_Key [Monitor,Status key_name] /OFf [ticks] /Task_Switch [OS2,WINdows,DesqView,DoubleDos,OmniView,TopView, VM/386,Key_Read,HaLT] {time_slice} /TINY /WriteOptions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed Option Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @filename Tame will load preset command options from the file specified. These options may have been previously placed into the file using the /Write_Options option. /BackGround Turns off the /NoBackGround option. /Boost [key_boost work_boost] This option is intended to prevent Tame from slowing an application. It will boost the priority of the application for key_boost clock ticks after each key press, and work_boost clock ticks after each DOS or video action. Both values default to 2. You may need to decrease the second value to zero if Tame does not seem to be effective. See The Boost Parameter in the Advanced Options section for a detailed explanation. /CLeaR Sets the totals that Tame displays on status screen to zero. This option will clear the totals that appear on both the pop-up status screen and the command line status screen. /CLONE [file command_line] This command will make a special version of the Tame TSR (the TAME-RES.COM that does not include the pop-up screens) that has customized default parameters, and will automatically run a specific command. The currently active defaults will be placed into the cloned program. In all cases, the /CLONE option should be the only command line option that is specified. The cloned program is specified with the file value, and should be named TAME-xxx where xxx is an abbreviation for the application name (TAME-123.COM). You may optionally specify a command_line to automatically run a specific command. Note that file is the name of the new COM file (without the .COM suffix), and command_line contains the full path name of the EXE or COM style command that is to be run. The new TAME-xxx.COM may then be run in place of TAME /I that is used when starting a new task. See the section on Setting default options for a detailed explanation. /CPU This command will calculate a suggested frequency threshold based on the speed of your CPU. Tame sets this threshold to 3. Unless your application runs slower under, you should not change the default frequency threshold. /DVAware This command allows you to run DESQview-aware programs with multi-taskers other than DESQview. See the section on Applications that are DESQview-aware for a detailed explanation. /Geiger {delay time freq spinner} This option provides audible ticks that sound like a Geiger counter. The ticks speed up when the system is idle, and slow down as other tasks demand CPU time. This is a very useful tool for monitoring the effectiveness of Tame. It allows you to monitor the amount of CPU that an application will use both when Tame is loaded and when it is not. There are some optional parameters that you may specify. These options will vary depending on the speed of the CPU you are using. When you run the Geiger command, it will display the current default values for each parameter. delay The delay parameter sets the amount of time between each Geiger tick. The default value is based on the speed of the CPU. When you use Geiger for tuning your applications, you will want to use the default value for this parameter. However, you can set the Geiger to use very little CPU when Tame is loaded and tuned so you can monitor total system CPU usage. But, remember that doing this is not very useful for tuning Tame. To monitor CPU usage, specify a negative value for delay to set the real time between each tick in 1/18 second increments. Setting it to -1 will make a tick each 1/18 of a second. Its only value in tuning Tame is in the fact that it will simulate a heavy keyboard poller, and may help you adjust the settings. Setting delay to zero will give a tick each time this task gets a time slice, but the zero setting requires the Tame TSR to be loaded. time This parameter sets the amount of time each tick takes. The default is based on the speed of your CPU, and normally you would not want to change it. You may set time as low as zero and a faint tick will still be heard. frequency This sets the frequency of the ticks in Hertz. The default for this value is 100 Hertz. spinner This option will display a spinner on the screen that visually supplements the ticking sounds. You simply specify how often to move the spinner relative to the tick sounds; 1 means move it on each tick, two means for every other tick, etc. /Help {option} This command lets you list all of the on-line help for Tame, or only help for a specific command or option. Entering /H or /? provides the complete help document, one screen at a time. To get help on a specific command, enter the full command or its abbreviation. For example, /Help HotKey or /H HK. /Hot_Key [function key_name] You may assign the hot key you want to use to display either the Tame pop-up status screen or the pop-up monitor. function You must enter either Status or Monitor to let Tame know which pop-up screen you are assigning a hot key. If you do not enter a key_name, you will be prompted to press the key to assign. key_name This is the name of the key you want to assign. The name of the key may normally be derived by its label on the key cap. The following names are valid. F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, Ins, Del, PgUp, PgDn, GrayMinus, GrayPlus, Left, Right, Up, Down, Home, End, TAB, ESC, Backspace, Enter, GrayStar, Space, A, B, ... Z, 0, 1, 2, ... 9 Also, any key may be modified as follows: Alt-Key Ctrl-Key Shift-Key Alt-Ctrl-Key For example, the following command line assigns the [Key: Alt-T] key to the Tame pop-up status screen. TAME /HK STATUS ALT-T /Idle_Indicate [first rest] This option may help you fine-tune Tame. first This value sets the number of consecutive keyboard polls per clock tick that are acceptable before Tame decides that the program is idly polling the keyboard. This number defaults to 3. If this number is too low, then Tame may switch tasks while the program is really working. You should set this number as accurately as possible. You may run a special TAME /CPU command and Tame will compute a reasonable value that you may want to use based on the speed of your CPU. rest If the application is inactive, Tame will wait first polls before task switching. If the application is still inactive the next time Tame checks, it will wait only rest polls before task switching. Tame will continue to wait only rest polls until the application again becomes active. This number defaults to 2. You will normally want to set this number low. You may set either of these values to -1, which indicates that Tame should not cause a task switch based upon polling alone. This is effective with programs that issue the keyboard idle interrupt while they are polling the keyboard, and will prevent Tame from switching tasks based upon intermittent keyboard polls. /Idle_Indicate [first rest] {POLLS} This is an alternate form of the previous option to specify that the values are not to be based on the time. Instead, Tame will cause a task switch after first polls, even if the polls span several clock ticks. /Idle_Indicate [poll_types] This option lets you specify the type of activity that Tame should check when considering polling. You may select any combination of the following poll type values. Key Tame should look for key polls. Time Tame should look for time polls. PSP Tame should look for PSP polls. This is frequently helpful with network-aware programs. NoWork Tame should detect the absence of work and assume that the application is idle. This detection may be restricted based on /NoWorkTime and /NoWorkRange parameters. Note that this parameter is recommended only with applications that do not poll. NONE Tame should not look at any type of polls. This may be used as the first parameter in order to cancel any idle indicators that are in effect before specifying new parameters. /Install {settings} This is the command you will use to load the Tame TSR into memory. It may be removed from memory using the /Uninstall option. One of the standard settings may optionally be specified. See the /Settings command for details on available settings. /KeyIdle [count] This option works well with many programs that inform DOS when they are polling the keyboard while in an idle state. Tame detects this idle situation and temporarily lowers the Idle Indicate first rest option to count. You may set count set to -1 which tells Tame to never switch tasks unless the application confirms that it is really idle. This option may be turned off by specifying /NoKeyIdle. NOTE: With DESQview release 2.26 and later, this option is not recommended for tasks that spend a lot of time at the DOS prompt. This is because DESQview detects the fact that Tame is watching the idle interrupt, and when at the DOS prompt, DESQview goes out of its way to make sure the idle interrupt is called. This wastes some processing time unnecessarily. This option is still very effective inside some programs, and the problem only occurs at the DOS prompt. /KeyWaitPoll Tame should look for the program requesting a key, and continue a task switch until a key is pressed. This is frequently helpful in Windows and defaults to being enabled in Windows. /Monitor This option turns on the monitor that displays Tame actions. The same monitor displays whether you load it with the hot key or with this command. The status monitor appears in the upper right hand corner of your screen, similar to the following. ╔════╗ ║SC/*║ ╚════╝ The status that may appear in each of the four monitor positions indicate: S = System status: (?) don't know, (I)dle, (W)orking C = Current task: (I)dle, (W)orking, (i)dle switched, (K)ey read (B)usy / = Spinner: continuously turns while the program is polling * = Task switch indicator: throbs when Tame is causing task switches. The monitor may be turned off using the /NoMonitor option. /NoBackGround [count] This option can be very effective with DESQview, and will be ignored if another multi-tasking system is being used. When this option is specified, Tame will patiently do a normal task switch count times when the application is run in the background. If no activity is detected, then it will instruct DESQview to temporarily run this program only while it is in the foreground. As soon as this program is brought to the foreground, Tame will instruct DESQview to again allow it to execute in the background. For example, you may have a large spreadsheet to calculate and a lot of data to enter into a data base. You can run the spreadsheet with the Tame /NBG command and move it to the background. While it is calculating, you can be entering data in the data base. When Tame detects that the spreadsheet is complete, it will put that background window to sleep and free the CPU for the foreground. When the spreadsheet is brought to the foreground, Tame will again activate it. Note that you should not use this option with programs that need to start by themselves, such as communications programs and mail programs. This option may be turned off by specifying /BackGround. /NoDVAware This option sets DESQview-aware programs so that they will not run with any other multi-taskers. The programs will run only with DESQview. /No_Idle_Indicate [poll_types] One or more activities may no longer be considered to be polling. You may instruct Tame to no longer watch for the program to poll one or both of the following poll type values. Key Tame should not look for key polls. PSP Tame should not look for PSP polls. Time Tame should not look for time polls. NoWork Tame should not detect the absence of work. /NoKeyIdle Turns off the /KeyIdle option. /NoMonitor Turns off the visual Monitor. /NoTimer This option prevents the application from processing the timer interrupt that is normally issued by the PC about 18.2 times per second. This option may disable some features of the program, and should be used with caution. It is very useful with programs that use a lot of CPU time to process the timer interrupt with little benefit. For example, a program that constantly displays the current time on the screen, but you are running the program in the background. This option works by intercepting the programs request to be called by the timer interrupt. The program assumes it will be called on a regular basis by the timer interrupt, but, since Tame did not pass this request on to DOS, the program will never be called by the interrupt. This option may be turned off by specifying /Timer. /No_Work_Indicate [activities] Define activities that Tame should not watch for to help it determine when the program is active. You may enter any of the following values. Com1 Program does not access COM1 using hardware. Com2 Program does not access COM2 using hardware. Com3 Program does not access COM3 using hardware. Com4 Program does not access COM4 using hardware. IRQn IRQ number n should not be monitored by Tame. SERial Program does not access serial ports using the BIOS. PARallel Program does not access the printer. /NoWorkRange [bytes] Tame can detect that a program is doing no work, and interpret that as a signal to switch tasks. Tame may falsely assume no work is being done if the program is using CPU but no other resources. As a failsafe, Tame also checks that the program stack pointer is also fairly constant. A truely compute-intensive application will normally be using the stack heavily. Tame can detect this use and assume that work is being done. The stack change that is interpreted as work may be specified with this parameter. The default is 30 bytes. If Tame fails to detect work, lower this parameter, and if Tame fails to properly detect idleness, raise it. /NoWorkTime [start_ticks] [retry_ticks] Tame can detect that a program is doing no work, and interpret that as a signal to switch tasks. This parameter sets how long the program should do no work before Tame considers it to be idle. A second time may also be specified, if you wish to use a lower tolerance after idleness is already detected. The default is 8,1. This will detect idleness after 8 ticks with no work, and after idleness is detected, switch after 1 tick of no work. /OFf The /OFf option will temporarily disable Tame, but leave it in memory for later use. /OFf [ticks] The /OFf ticks option will temporarily disable Tame for the number of ticks you specify. Tame is automatically activated at the end of that time. This is beneficial when you need to load a program and not have Tame active until after the program is loaded. Note that pressing a key will cancel this option. /ON Enable Tame task switching. Tame is on by default. /RUN [command_line] Runs the command line with Tame active. Any Tame options that are specified must be placed before /RUN and will be in effect while running the command line. /SEttings settings_file Set Tame options to one of the standard settings. The following settings may be used: 1 = Minimum taming of the application, and maximum detection of work; Use this level if Tame seems to slow the application. 5 = Average taming of the application and maximum detection of work; Use this setting if maximum taming makes the program sluggish. 9 = Maximum taming and maximum detection of work; Some applications may run slower with this setting. NOTE: The options specified for each setting are listed in a file named *.SET (where * is the setting name). You are free to add your own settings by adding more .SET files to the Tame directory. /Status Display a summary report. The summary includes the number of task switches that were initiated by Tame, the total number of keyboard calls that the application made, and also a summary of the current options. /Task_Switch [method] The main purpose of Tame is to switch to another task when it detects that the application is wasting time polling the keyboard. With DESQview, Windows, Omniview, Topview, VM/386 and Double Dos, the native pause function is used to switch tasks. Since Tame does not have specific support for other multi-taskers, you need to set the task switching method used by your multi-tasker. The following task switching methods are available. DesqView Use the native DESQview task switching method. DoubleDos Use the native Double DOS task switching method. HaLT The Halt option specifies that Tame should execute a HLT instruction when polling is detected. This instruction has been found to cause some multi-taskers to immediately switch to another task. This is the default task switching method when Tame does not recognize the multi-tasker. Key_Read The Key_Read option specifies that when the program polls the keyboard, Tame should tell a white lie and say that a key has been pressed. Most applications will immediately read the key that Tame claimed was already pressed. Since it really was not pressed, DOS will wait for a key to be pressed. Most multi-taskers use this wait for a key press as a Que to switch tasks. The Key_Read option could be the most effective task switching method in Tame, but it will not work with some applications. Specifically, it will not work with any applications that poll devices other than the keyboard, or with programs that occasionally flush the keyboard buffer. It is also not effective in Windows/386. OmniView Use the native Omniview task switching method. This requires that Omniview is set up to be Topview compatible. OS/2 Use the native OS/2 task switching method. The task switch time may be adjusted using the /Task_Switch_Time parameter which defaults to 100 milliseconds (1/10 second). TopView Use the native Topview task switching method. VM/386 Use the native VM/386 task switching method which happens to be the same as Halt. WINdows Use the native Windows task switching method. This is effective with Windows 3.x and Windows NT. It also seems to work with some other multi-taskers such as OS/2. /Task_Switch_REPeat [count] When Tame detects an idle system and switches tasks, it will normally switch tasks once and then return control to the application. This option causes Tame to continue to switch tasks a specified number of times without giving the application a chance to resume its polling ways. The task switch repeat count will be terminated automatically by Tame if it detects a key press or other IRQ-based work (e.g. COM port activity). /Task_Switch_Time {timeslice} Some multitaskers allow releasing for a specific amount of time. The amount of time specified here is dependent on the multitasker in use. This option is currently supported only with OS/2. /Timer Turns off the /NoTimer option. /TINY This option will cause the small version of the resident Tame program to be loaded. It is a fully operational version, except the pop-up status screen and pop-up monitor are not available. If you use this option, it must always be the first option on the command line. /Uninstall Remove the resident (TSR) portion of Tame from memory. This is only necessary when you load Tame using the /Install option. /Work_Indicate [activities] You may define the activities that Tame should watch for to help it determine when the program is active. You may enter any combination of the following values, except that a maximum ot two IRQs may be monitored at any given time (Each COM port counts as an IRQ). Com1 Program accesses COM1 using hardware. Com2 Program accesses COM2 using hardware. Com3 Program accesses COM3 using hardware. Com4 Program accesses COM4 using hardware. IRQn IRQ number n is activated by some hardware and should be detected by Tame. Specify IRQ number 0 through 7. SERial Program accesses serial ports using the BIOS. PARallel Program accesses the printer. NONE Program does none of the above. /Work_Indicate [work_boost] This option sets the number of clock ticks after a work activity that TAME should elevate the priority of the task. /Write_Options This option will write out all the current Tame parameters. For best results, redirect output to a file. When fine-tuning, you may want to check your current settings against the statistics on the Tame ANL report. The following example creates a file named TAMEOPT.DAT that contains all the current Tame options. TAME /WO >TAMEOPT.DAT This option works in conjunction with the @filename option.