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CD School House 9
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CD School House 9.0 - Wayzata Technology (1994).iso
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DVUG1
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DVUG1.TXT
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1994-03-13
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235 lines
DIABLO BLUE is published monthly by the Diablo Valley PC User's Group,
Walnut Creek, California, an organization open to anyone interested in
IBM PC's and their clones.
Entire contents are copyrighted by the DVPC except as noted.
Permission for reproduction in whole or in part is granted to other
computer user groups for non-profit use, as long as credit is given to
the author(s). All other reproduction without the permission of DVPC
is prohibited.
Diablo Valley PC Users Group
P.O. Box 8040 # 117
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Edited by Walt Parsons & Jane Lester
BBS phone (415) 943-6238
The following article appeared in the September 1990 issue of Diablo
Blue.
MORE ON WINDOWS 3.0
by Richard C. Kent
Windows Editor
Microsoft Windows 3.0 offers more than multitasking and memory
management. It is truly an integrated system manager, if used
properly. My perspective and opinions are based on a fairly broad
range of programs that run under Windows, primarily for business, but
also for professional and personal reasons. I have been an invited
speaker on Windows and am a beta tester for several Window's compliant
products. This discussion applies to a single computer system, and not
to servers or other aspects of networking. Mr. Walt Parsons has
suggested, and I agreed, that this is the first of several articles on
Windows and related subjects.
Graphics based system managers like Windows 3.0 are not new. They have
been around since the early 1980's on "personal/desktop" computers.
What is new are the plethora of central processing units that have
been invented to guide and control more and more of the flow of
'information'. Along with the power in CPU's came the unwitting
sloppiness in writing programs. Hence, a cycle is in place and the
consumer is caught in the middle. The cycle is: the more power placed
in a CPU, the less the programmer must rely upon his artful design of
programs ("let the CPU+memory handle it"). Therefore, we are seeing
programs that not only take up disk space, but take up Random Access
Memory as well. We are almost at the point of the optical-laser drive
being commonplace. As they grow in memory capacity, you can bet the
average programmer will attempt to take it away from you. Hence the
cycle. It is not all bad. The wealth of information at your fingertips
is huge, and you should have total control of the situation (purchase
compatible equipment).
Why the spiel on memory? Well, Windows 3.0 needs lots of it - both
disk and RAM. Programs written for Windows take a lot of memory also.
There are only a few international guidelines on computer industry
standards. It is coming and Windows 3.0 takes a giant step in
developing a basis for those standards. This assumes that Disk
Operating Systems like Microsoft's will not totally change, but will
evolve into something that can handle unlimited disk and RAM memory
(be prepared to obtain MSDOS 5.x). As a guide, use Windows 3.0 only on
systems with a minimum memory of 60 MegaBytes on disk and 4 MegaBytes
of RAM. If your computer needs are for occasional word processing,
spreadsheeting, maybe a Christmas mailing list in databasing, and
having fun calling a BBS, then maybe, just maybe, Windows 3.0 is not
for you, except to satisfy your own curiosity. I am only discussing
systems that average $10,000 or less here. If you want to see a
different world in computers, take a tour of the Federal research labs
or a major corporation.
Windows starts with an opening title screen, not for "ego", but to
show that Microsoft owns the copyright. Computer software was
"patched" into the Federal laws on copyrights. All major programs
startup this way for their own protection, not yours. Windows also has
extensive on-line help, as most of the better software programs do, to
lead you into electronic form, and away from having paper laying
around. Once up and running, there simply is little reason to have a
book on Windows except as a general reference when you change hardware
or add new programs. By the way, for about $325, you can purchase the
Windows Toolkit and build your own programs for interfacing within
Windows.
How much memory does Windows require? On my system, it takes up about
10 MB on disk. That includes most of the utilities for Windows, such
as a screen blanker (something that Microsoft refuses to put in their
programs for some reason). It includes a bunch of pictures since I
like different backgrounds (some people deplore this idea), system
screen font drivers, help files, and PIF's. My physical hard drives
are set up as several logical drives. C: drive only contains the
operating system, associated drivers for printing, and a sprinkling of
all purpose utilities. I control that drive totally with all file
attributes set to Read Only. My DOS Path environment in minimal to
give me the most memory. Only the C: Drive and the Windows Directory
are in my Path statement. This serves as a security feature for
programs that try to change and add to my C: drive files, and it is
more difficult for a virus to change a Command.Com file that is Read
Only (although not impossible - some do). Windows Ramdrive and
Smartdrive are on my C:Drive. When those programmers tell you to place
their program in the Path Environment by adding to your Autoexec.Bat
file, don't let them. Create a Batch file of three lines and put it in
C: Drive: include on line 1 the drive where their program is located,
on line 2 include CD\ and the directory name, and in line 3 the
program name. Several Bats on your C: Drive (which is in your Path)
that use disk memory are better than putting program directory names
in volatile memory (RAM) that can be corrupted with interference from
other programs. And you can call your BAT anything your like, making
it easier to remember.
If at all possible, I suggest starting a setup with Windows from a
fresh hard drive that is formatted with the latest MSDOS (4.01). I get
a lot of argument on this, but it boils down to many who really do not
want to take the time to backup the entire harddisk before formatting
it with MSDOS FDisk. MSDOS 4.01 takes a look at your existing hardware
and suggests numbers for it's SmartDrive setup. Any setting of
Smartdrive below 256K is worthless and below 512 is questionable as to
it's usefulness. If you are really sold on Quarterdecks memory manger,
QEMM and others, then it will just take longer to properly setup
Windows. It will take even longer if you use Disk Manager for the
Seagate harddrives to format. This is not a sales pitch for Microsoft.
Compatible is all important in computer hard and software, and as I
mentioned before, the computer industry is rampant with literally
worldwide factories creating all kinds of equipment that seems to run
on your computer (and confuse you).
As you are presented options during the Windows setup, try to foresee
the growth of your computer system as much as possible by creating
drivers for more than the one peripheral that you now have attached to
your system. While it is easy to add drivers through Windows Setup, a
year from now you will have forgotten the details of the Setup program
and if you then make a mistake, there is a possibility of other files
being revised at the same time. This could cause chaos. Your disk
space may be limited as to the number of drivers that you can
initially add. That is why I suggest purchasing equipment capable of
handling more than your wildest dreams. You will not regret it if it
is high quality.
Windows will ask you if you want a permanent SwapFile on the hard
drive. Mine is set at 5 MegaBytes (more than usual) because I need to
manipulate satellite images. Windows uses this Swapfile to put your
program in, and then reads from it, rather than hunting all over your
fragmented disk for pieces of the program files. Choose a permanent
SwapFile around 2 MB to start with, and change it later by running
Windows in real mode from Dos (WIN /r) after you gain experience. If
you started with a freshly formatted disk, there will be ample room
for Windows to find the required contiguous block of disk space. If
you did not, then you will be limited to the largest contiguous space
it can find. Or use a de-fragmenter to close up files physically on
the disk and make a larger contiguous space.
I have about 10 MegaBytes of RAM because of the graphic programs I
need to use. Windows manages that RAM memory, the base 640 KiloByte
RAM memory and the Hi RAM memory from there to 1 MegaByte (256KB of
extended memory). About 22% of the Windows User's Guide and almost all
of the readme files are dedicated to optimizing Windows. Therefore,
this aspect of setup is no small feat, will take time, and will take
tweaking as you go along adding and deleting programs. There are no
general rules. You must sit down and read, pick out those setup
options that apply to your system, and try them. I was lucky with a
system that uses the 386 Enhanced mode exclusively. I have no reason
to run Windows in Standard or Real modes. If setup becomes
overwhelming or too time-consuming, hire someone, or better yet, call
me (I am a freebee Mentor for Windows in the DVPC).
Windows will install what is called "Windows programs". These programs
are specifically programmed to run only in Windows and will not run in
system (e.g DOS) mode. They carry common features for transferring
information to each other, including the same menu items in the same
place. The Accessories include Write (a scaled down word processor),
Paintbrush (for drawings), Terminal (for quickie telecommunications),
Calculator (optionally scientific), Calendar (with alarms), Cardfile
(database), Clock (optionally digital), Notepad (text editor),
Recorder (create automatic functions and write macros), and PIF (for
non-Windows applications). What more do you need? Of the many, many
computer applications, the average user has a need in 5 general
categories: word processing, spreadsheet, database, drafting, and
telecommunications. From there, everyone customizes their system for
their needs. Windows hits 4 of the 5 categories, although Terminal for
telecommunications and drawing fordrafting are weak links.
Telecommunications should be done with a program having many more
features and drafting should be done with a Computer Aided Design and
Drafting (CADD/CAD).
Windows per se is a group of programs for managing the entire Windows
platform. These programs are also automatically created during setup
and include Program Manager, File Manager, Control Panel, and Print
Manager. All programs running under Windows must flow through and
yield some control to, one or more of these programs. Some programs
only need Program Manager to get them started through a PIF (Program
Information File). Viewing Windows on a monchrome monitor is possible
but not advisable except for desktop publishing as a replacement for
offset printing.
Customize. That's user friendliness. You are in total control of how
the computer handles your situation and viewing preferences. Windows
will do that for you with minor limitations. Keyboard vs mouse, icon
vs typing, tile vs cascade vs icons, and macros at the push of one
button. This is not a program that you can run immediately out of the
box. You must think and do some planning. You must learn the basic
Window commands and menus (it's easy).
Because Windows sets up a virtual machine for me when I ask it to,
each non-Windows program has it's own disk and RAM to work with on my
system. That means no interference and dedicated RAM and disk space
for each program, just as though I had 10 computers each running a
separate program. Each setup admittedly takes time to optimize Windows
through revisions of the PIF.
My basic computer tools under Windows are Word For Windows with 167
fonts, Excel, SuperBase 4, The DeskTop Set, Xtree Gold, Crosstalk For
Windows, JetForm, TimeSlips III, Quicken, and Drafix. My peripheral
programs, also all running under Windows, include Harvard Graphics,
Harvard Project Manager, Graphics Transformer, and Logitech ScanMan
(through a Paint program). I have a not-so-hot OCR program that
converts scanned images to electronic text. I have something like 20
floppies of Windows utilities laying around that include the latest.
Some of my programs are specialized, such as, developing water
pollution paths and drilling groundwater wells. I have simply run out
of time to do any more programming, so it is limited to the Basic
Language offshoots included in many programs like Word For Windows,
Excel, and Crosstalk. I often need to customize source code which
comes with programs for my work. By the way, I previously used other
programs before I settled on Windows 3.0 and those shown above,
including: Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Automenu, DBase III, Desqview,
Enable, Fastback Plus, Procomm, Telix, Ventura Publisher, AutoCad,
Wordstar, and so many utilities they don't ring a bell anymore.
If you see the name of a program for which you need help, please give
me a call and I will do my best. Above all, don't catch yourself
playing with Windows. It is not a toy (I use Flight Simulator). There
are no returns under copyright (you don't own it). And the computer is
not biodegradable. It just loses value while the information becomes
priceless.