Subj : Installing 32
To : Dallas Hinton
From : Minh Van Le
Date : Mon May 19 2008 09:36 am
Hello Dallas !
On 12-May'08 20:10, Dallas Hinton wrote to Robert Wolfe:
RW> Heh heh, I am of the mind that if it ain't broken, don't fix
RW> it :)
DH> I don't disagree -- but I notice the cpu load with a
DH> binkley and 2 max telnets is a solid 100%!!! I'm sort of
DH> hoping that changing to the w32 version would reduce that?
That is true. CPU utilisation for DOS programs in multitasking OS's like
Windows depend on whether the program releases time slices to the OS.
Maximus DOS doesn't do time slicing, and therefore kills the CPU.
BinkleyTerm DOS 2.60 (?) does handle time slicing, so does not hog CPU.
I run WFC mode using Maximus/32 specifically for scheduling BBS maintenance
events because it can idle all day without CPU utilisation.
Maximus/32 is faster than the DOS version of Maximus. Eg. file/message
scans/listing, IPC / multinode chat, QWK, MEX etc. It can also access all the
memory available to the OS instead of being limited to the 640 kb heap (which
so far has no practical advantage).
The disadvantage of Maximus/32 is its direct com port access requirement. If
you try to set up a Maximus/32 node on a physically non-existant com port, WFC
will abort. Also anything that requires a FOSSIL will not work in Maximus/32.
And hot com port passing will not work with Maximus/32 (ie. DTR is dropped when
passing callers between DOS programs eg. BinkleyTerm to/from Maximus) unless
you use WinFOSSIL or Netserial.
On my BBS telnet callers connect to the Maximus DOS executable for full door &
FOSSIL compatibility, and I use the 32 bit versions of Maximus utilities (eg.
\max\*n.exe) and Squish wherever possible for their speed.
Or you can get a faster computer, or run multiple nodes on separate machines.
I allow all 16 telnet DOS nodes to be spawned on a single PC and let
performance be the caller's problem. Heh. Besides, these days having even 2
genuine simultaneous callers online is wishful thinking.
In my experience Maximus/32 without WinFOSSIL or Netserial is only useful for
local nodes.
I recommend running Maximus in VMware DOS under Windows XP.
