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PsL Monthly 1994 February
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1993-10-10
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TAME release 3.1
Shareware Documentation
Copyright 1988-1993 by David G. Thomas
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Overview
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Introduction
Tame is designed to 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, 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.
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License and Registration
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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
If you would like to use a credit card, you may call the following numbers:
(404) 516-0381 FAX
(404) 516-0759 Voice
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 US
funds.
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Installation
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Installing TAME
Tame is installed onto the hard drive by uncompressing the Tame archive
file (TAME310.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