From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc,comp.os.os2.apps
Subject: Re: *** Many important (to me) questions about OS/2 ***
Date: 14 Aug 92 19:04:21 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <BsxwvA.Eyr@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> bcrwhims@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (Carsten) writes:
>
>- I have heard recently that a fast hard-drive makes a difference. Is this
>  true? In that case, I would love to replace my ridiculous 40M 27ms drive
>  with a 200M, 12-15ms IDE drive. Any comments? Will this enable me to make
>  better use of the extra 2M, if I upgrade to 8M?

I'd think so.  If you don't have enough RAM (and maybe even if you
do), OS/2 swaps stuff to the disk.  The faster the disk, the quicker
this will go.  The bigger the disk, the more you can swap.

>- I have a Plus hardcard w/ 100M and a cached 9ms access-time. Can I boot
>  and run OS/2 off this drive (d:)?

I don't see why not.  If you can't use it directly, you should be able
to use the IBMI13.I13 driver on it.  You may have to make it the C:
drive, though.

>- I have been using PmComm for a bit, toying with the idea of registering 
>  it, but it doesn't do scripts in the pre-registered version, and I don't 
>  want to have to pay 89.95 to find out that their implementation stinks.
>  Has anyone registered it, and how is it? Is there another shareware comm
>  program out there that is a little cheaper, and as functional, and nice?

Go to wuarchive.wustl.edu.  Look in the /mirrors/msdos hierarchy.
Download a file pcplustd.zip (I think it's in the procomm directory
under /mirrors/msdos).  This is a test-drive version of Procomm Plus
version 1.1B.  It has all the features of Procomm Plus 1.1, except for
keyboard remapping and a few other things.  You can use Procomm's
"aspect" language for scripting.  It's very powerful.

Note that the current "for sale" version of Procomm Plus, version 2.0,
is much more powerful.

>- Also recently (coincidence ?), I have had to double-click _TWICE_ on some
>  of the program folders on my desktop, since the first double-click only
>  moves them into memory (shaded background, ie minimized). Why? Very annoying!

One idea:  Try opening those folders to the desktop and shut down with
them already open.  Then close them.  The folders remember their
last-open position on the desktop when you shutdown.  It's possible
that a closed folder isn't saving its location.  If the last opened
position was minimized, it might be saving itself there.

This could be wrong.  It's just and idea.

>- How fast does the memory have to be on a 486-50? 60ns? 50ns?
>  On a 486-33? DX-2 25/50? DX-2 33/66?

Check your motherboard's documentation.  Depending on wait states and
caching, it could be anything.  You'll probably be OK with 70ns SIMMs,
though. 

>- Does EISA make any difference to the general performance under OS/2?

Not yet.  If you have EISA-specific cards (especially disk and video),
you may notice some improvement, (due to the 32-bit bandwidth) but I
can't say how much.

-- 
   |)  David Charlap           "I don't even represent myself
  /|_  dic5340@hertz.njit.edu   sometimes so NJIT is right out!.
 ((|,)
  ~|~  Hi! I am a .signature virus, copy me into your .signature file.
Xref: sparky comp.os.os2.misc:27870 comp.os.os2.networking:1074