From: bodoh@xraylith.wisc.edu (Daniel J. Bodoh)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.desqview
Subject: Re: Ok, should I upgrade to DV/X?
Date: 16 Apr 92 03:17:02 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Center for X-ray Lithography, UW-Madison

In article <6380@lib.tmc.edu> jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
>>By the way, I'd love to read a full review, if someone would care
>>to post...
>I'm not good at writing comprehensive reviews; I was kinda hoping Daniel Bodoh
>would take on the job...

Well, I'll try.  Haven't had much experience writing reviews, though.  Feel
free to add to or criticize...

I got the package last Friday and tore it open immediately, anxious
to get it up and running.  I glanced at the manual labelled "Installation".
Things didn't look to complicated, so I inserted the disk and typed install.

Installation was very easy, although I would have preferred that it
let me make the decisions as to what to install (like WordPerfect).
However, you can easily remove unused parts later with a batch file
that is provided.  Have 10 meg free for installation.  

The installation doesn't ask you much -- it seems to auto-identify video,
network, etc.  Although this makes it easy for the dumb end user to 
install it, what happens if you have wierd hardware that the install
program has trouble with?  I prefer more control over what's happening.

The install program automatically installs QEMM and optionally runs
Optimize.  Optimize locked me up in its second phase.  I didn't bother
to figure out why; I just optimized by hand.  Optimize went OK on
another computer I installed DV/X on, however.

My first impression at DV/X was WOW!  I expected to see the standard
blue DV title box, but I was greeted with a very colorful, happening
screen.  I quickly realized, however, that DV/X isn't as light as DV 
classic.  Definitely, 4 megs of memory is the bare minimum.  I had
to turn on Stealth and disable my cache to get the same functionality
out of DV/X that I did in DV.  Now, I typically run a Big Dos window,
a few of my DVSI utilities (~25K each), MS-Kermit (200K or so) and
some other big 600K program.    In general, if you are a real power
user with DV, and don't want to spend any money in hardware, don't expect
to get the same performance out of DV/X -- that "/X" doesn't come for
free.

Video is also slow, but don't blame QOS for this.  The PC video architecture
is not designed for GUIs.  You don't want to use the 256-color version
of the X server if you have a standard SVGA card.  The 16-color server
is tolerable.  Scrolling is definitely slower.  Again, if you want 
the same quality of video that you see on your favorite Unix workstation,
get ready to throw money at your computer -- look at the graphics
coprocessor and accelerator boards out there.  BTW, my experience is
with a 386SX/20 -- your mileage may vary, if you have a 486/33.

DV/X has got the standard 1.0 problems.  But I don't want to
exaggerate.  There are bugs, but you won't crash in DV/X as often
as you get a UAE in Windows.  I've seen two classes of bugs.  First,
the window manager is a DOS protected mode application, complete 
with virtual memory capability.  I've experienced lockups when memory
gets tight and the window manager starts paging.  The other night,
I was playing with the icon manager, and either the icon manager or
the window manager started thrashing.  After 5 minutes of disk activity,
I decided that the only solution was the 3-fingered salute.

The second class of bugs is with DV-specific apps.  QOS had to translate
all the screen and pointer API calls to X requests, and there are
definitely some problems.  DVTree is unuseable.  Orphaned apps do
strange things.  I think the problems here are because some of the
DV Classic windowing capabilities really have no X equivalent.  What this
means to Joe User is that he'll have to bug the authors of his favorite
DV-specific apps for a fix.  BTW, a maintenance release of DVSI will
be coming hopefully in 6 to 8 weeks.

The GUI is real nice.  3-D sculptured windows makes it look professional.
You an iconify a window (with the native Window Manager).  And you
really don't need a mouse.  I was really surprised at the ease of
keyboard-only use.  Most of the same keystrokes you've gotten used
to in DESQview can still be used in DV/X.

A few things they removed:  The Tune Performance menu, although present,
doesn't have any of the old Tune Performance options.  You can no
longer "Put Aside" an app -- there is no such thing as "swapping"
any more.  You really can't use DV/X as a task switcher if you only
have 1 meg of memory.

I think one of the best moves QOS made was to package the Companions
with DV/X, especially the Applications Manager.  The Companions include
the Applications Manager, File Manager, Icon Editor and Adobe Type 
Manager.

The Application Manager will make DV/X look like Windows 3.0.  It
is like Window's Program Manager, but much more powerful.  You can
make your own "buttons" complete with icons that you draw with the
Icon Editor.  These buttons can launch applications like Windows,
or you can build a tree-like structure.  For example, you can
have a button on the "Main" window which is labelled "Word Processors".
Clicking on it will open another window with buttons for "WP",
"PC-Write", etc.  Buttons can also launch apps running on remote
computers.

If you want to use the App Manager and run 3,4,or 5 other programs
simultaneously, you'll need at least 6 megs of memory.  Each of
the Companions is at least 250-300K.

I haven't played much with the File Manager.  Of course, it is an
X client with a nice interface, provides a split-directory type of
interface.  What's neat is that it is a fancy front-end for FTP --
either/or of the windows can be a directory of a remote DV/X machine,
Unix machine, or whatever.

The Icon Editor lets you edit and customize icons for the App Manager.
It can import .BMP and X format pixmaps.  It looks like your basic
paint program.

The Adobe Type Manager isn't of much use unless you are using lots
of X clients.  It lets you add/delete fonts.  I honestly don't know
much about it.

I can't really review the network capabilities of DV/X, since I
haven't tried it out.  I'm in the process of collected information
and the pieces required to run it with SLIP to the Unix boxes at work.
I'll probably have all the pieces together this summer.

DVPMAN now replaces Change-A-Program.  It, too, is an X client with a
nice interface, magnitudes better than the real bad interface in
CaP.

Well, to wrap it up...  DV/X looks very, very nice.  3-d sculptured 
windows, fancy startup screens, the Application Manager all make it
look as good or better than Windows.   But the good looks come at a
price.  However, the kernal is still the same good ol' DESQview you've been
using for years.   I think QOS did an excellent job at giving us
a pretty GUI that is still a technically good product.  There are
bugs, which should be expected.  I am satisfied that I got my $110
worth.
-- 
Daniel J. Bodoh                       2271 in DV/X Tetris...
bodoh@xraylith.wisc.edu or via Fidonet: Daniel Bodoh 1:121/99