From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: OS/2 Questions (Not on the FAQ)
Keywords: OS/2 2.0, Monitors, S3, etc.
Date: 9 Apr 92 18:46:20 GMT
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago

In article <32445@darkstar.ucsc.edu> galpin@cats.ucsc.edu (Dan Galpin) writes:
>According to the FAQ sheet, the OS/2 PM has no support for Hercules or Mono. I
>run a multiple-monitor setup. Even though the second monitor is used primarily
>for debugging (i.e. the MS Windows SDK w/CV for Windows, etc..) ... I was
>wondering if OS/2 2.0 could make any use of it whatsoever? (i.e. open up a
>terminal on the MDA while something in the PM was having fun...)

Under 1.3 this was definitely the case.  I haven't heard enough about
2.0 to determine whether this will work.

>I am confused about HPFS. Can DOS apps be installed on it? (I understand that
>they couldn't possibly take advantage of the extra features, but would OS/2
>emulate a FAT partition for their benefit?) 

Yes indeed.

>About Stacker. If I created a FAT partition, could I use stacker on the drive
>if I ran Stacker in the config.sys of an OS/2-MSDOS session? (i.e. could a DOS
>application have access to the stacker partition even if the rest of OS/2
>could not assuming that the device driver was loaded individually for each
>app?)

I haven't heard a conclusive answer on this.  Theoretically it is
possible (at least with a "real" DOS VDM), but I haven't heard of
anyone trying it.

>(I do understand that a true OS/2 stacker version is forthcoming)

Yes.

>I own an S3-based coprocessed video card. (The Diamond Stealth) Are there any
>S3 based drivers for PM yet? Can I use the S3 drivers I currently have for
>full screen windows sessions? How about Hi-color support?

No S3 based drivers for PM just yet (but Diamond promises them); yes,
you can use the S3 drivers you currently have for full screen Win-OS/2
sessions (assuming SVGA ON works for you), possibly even HiColor.

>I currently use another, similar, ATM-style program for WYSIWYG under Windows
>(MoreFonts from Micro Logic Software). Can I continue to use this under WINOS2
>sessions?

MoreFonts is not listed in the README as incompatible (a handful of
applications, e.g. Mathematica 2.0 for Windows, are).  You would have
to disable the default ATM for Windows, I suppose, but it should work fine.

>I will be getting 16 Mbytes of RAM soon. With that much RAM, how much Hard
>Drive space will OS/2 dedicate to a swap file?

The swap file is dynamically allocated, meaning it varies depending on
how you use the system.  (You can tell OS/2 not to allocate the last X
kilobytes of hard disk space to the swap file, so you can prevent
overflow problems.)

>If I have a MS-DOS program that I want to grab ALL CPU cycles, does OS/2 2.0
>support this.. (i.e. Wing Commander II or just about any realtime graphic
>simulation..) How much user control is there over priority (can it be
>individually set for each task?)

Priority is assigned dynamically, and there are DOS parameters which
can be set that directly or indirectly affect performance.  Wing
Commander II does work fine under OS/2 2.0 even though, technically,
it does not grab "all" CPU cycles.

The key is to have "smooth" allocation of CPU resources, not
necessarily exclusive allocation.

>What MIDI and sound support is included with OS/2 2.0 GA? Will windows
>programs that currently use custom device drivers to access MIDI be likely to
>function under OS/2 2.0?

Not too much is included (yet -- the OS/2 Multimedia Extensions are
coming) with OS/2 2.0 itself.  Windows programs that utilize the
Windows Multimedia Extensions work fine under OS/2 2.0.  DOS/Windows
programs that use custom device drivers to access MIDI, as you ask,
are indeed likely to work fine.

>Okay.. that is about all I can think of for now. I waded through over 400
>messages before posting this, and I don't think there are definitive answers
>to most of the questions... (but I could have missed one.. 400 messages is
>definitely a brain-frying experience..)

Nothing definitive because of the wild permutations possible (both in
hardware and software).  But fairly strong statements can be made.

-- 
Timothy F. Sipples       Keeper of the OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions
sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu  List, available via anonymous ftp from
Dept. of Economics       128.123.35.151, directory pub/os2/faq, or via
Univ. of Chicago  60637  netmail from LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET.