Hi Eric,
> > Do you mean, authors making their programs FDAPM aware?
> No I mean making FDAPM aware of the programs... Exactly
> the same way as your "DPAKBD" is aware of your programs,
> without having to change your programs, as I understood.
That would be great!
And, Yes, you understood correctly: DPAKBD does not
require changes in the programs.
> > Examples of non-aware programs which I use often and typically
> > for long periods are: SuperCalc spreadsheet, DataPerfect
> > database, Desi-III CAD, and the image viewers ShowJPG, PictView
> > and LXPic. I don't think their authors would change them...
> Is any of them free for download?
These are free for download:
Desi-III CAD http://users.telenet.be/desi-iii/index.html
ShowJPG image viewer http://www.pictview.com/
PictView image viewer (same as above)
LXPic image viewer http://hplx.pgdn.de/
> In what way are they CPU-hot?
FDAPM reports 0% idle time, and CPU is indeed very hot to
the touch.
> And in what way does DPAKBD treat them differently?
I load DPAKBD before running any of these programs, and (try
to) unload it afterwards -- by means of a batch file, of
course. In other words, I only keep it loaded when a
non-FDAPM-aware program is running.
> Are there also side effects of using DPAKBD? Does it maybe slow
> down the programs that it makes CPU-cool? Or does it slow down
> others?
It does slow them down slightly, but in most cases it is
hardly perceptible. The only case I remember in which there
is a noticeable (and somewhat annoying) slowing down of
mouse and keyboard action is Dillo.
Interestingly, in the DataPerfect database, even reports --
a CPU-intensive activity -- run quite fast. I have not taken
any actual measurements, but my guess is that they lose
perhaps 30% of their speed, which is not so bad.
However, if DPAKBD is not properly unloaded afterwards,
other programs can effectively become very slow.
> Can you give some more explanations about what DPAKBD is and
> does, which license it has, which configuration options...?
Let me tell about configurations first. The most important
switches are (I think) /D and /T -- see explanation below.
The trick of using DPAKBD is doing a lot of experimentation
with these two values. Fortunately, many programs will work
well (in my computer) with /D3 /T100, so I adopted these as
default values.
But some programs such as Arachne, Dillo and HighView (my
favorite file viewer) have required hours of trial and error
before I could get something acceptable.
The /C switch did not work for me.
Below is the full text of the DPAKBD.TXT file. As you see,
nothing is said about license or registration. I looked for
more information on the internet (because I like to pay for
the license whenever requested) but could not find anything
at all.
----begin-----------
Citrix Australia Pty Ltd
DPAKBD is a TSR that attempts to put errant DOS application
that poll the keyboard incessantly to sleep thus enabling
the CPU to service the rest of its process queue. It must be
executed in the same NTVDM as the application but before
the application is executed.
Usage: DPAKBD /Dnn /Tnn /I /Cnn
where
nn specifies a value
/D specifies the number of time slices to give up
/T specifies a threshold number of polls that can be made
in 1 clock tick (1/18.2 secs) before time slice sharing
kicks in.
/I monitors file locks
/C uses a more aggressive method that ignores the
/D and /T switch.
Note: The /C switch will only work if the following is done
1. start the PIF editor (pifedit) and in the Program Filename
edit box enter "command.com"
2. select the "Advanced Button" and uncheck the Detect Idle
Time check box.
3. Fill in any other parameters like working directory etc
4. Save this PIF file and then run it.
5. type "dpakbd /Cnn", where nn is a counter value, the higher
this value the more the application is put to sleep. The
default value is 3.
6. Execute your DOS application.
----end-------------
And in a separate file there was this single sentence:
"This file was downloaded is from http://thethin.net and
is posted with permission from the author."
> How about elinks, lynx, w3m, Arachne, Dillo?
Yes, Lynx is also FDAPM-aware.
Arachne and Dillo are not.
I have never used elinks or w3m.
Regards,
Marcos
--------------------------------------
Marcos Fávero Florence de Barros
Campinas, Brazil
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