Don't worry about the BIOS for many things - it isn't used except during
BOOT time and in some special compatibility cases.
It the software uses standard software to access the devices, you could drop
in better serail port cards e.g. Rocket. Things that talk directly to the
ports are the real problems,.
Karls's case was NT. While it is great that NT does run 16 bit apps, it
does not really make any super effort to do so, and running a 16 bit
frequently misses out on being able to take advantage of NT e.g. on serial
ports, not having the ability to take advantage of I/O Completion Ports.
And finally, yes C programs are generally smaller because they do not
support Windows. Both a p[lus and minus.
From: Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, P.E. <geraldj@ames.net>
To: Steve Baron <SteveBaron@starlinx.com>
Cc: Karl Heimbach <heimbachk@mindspring.com>; tentec@contesting.com
<tentec@contesting.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Thursday, September 09, 1999 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Pegasus Software/PcPakRatt Version 1.0/NT 4.0
Performance
>Practically every maker of windoze software figures he knows your
>computer and uses better than you and can therefore change everything
>including DLLs necessary for your living as he wishes. The safest thing
>is a dedicated computer. Next best thing is to do a backup before any
>trial installation and if things don't work right, then do a restore.
>Definitely a pain on the posterior, but faster than having to find the
>conflicts and the damages to the registry and other windows .INI files.
>
>Programmers using VB probably do more of the changeling .DLL because VB
>thinks too much for them.
>
>Its almost sure that if it runs in windoze 3 its 16 bit VB.
>
>It would be better to make programs self contained and not depend on
>.DLL for enhancements. But if properly programmed in C they would be
>much smaller and faster.
>
>There is a fundamental problem in serial communications. The BIOS is
>terrible, no buffering so every communications program has to replace
>the BIOS and probably does it for all ports. I'm searching for better
>ideas today. Looking at PCI bus serial cards, though I don't see you
>that can be better than local bus chips on the mother board, and at USB
>with serial adapter. At least the USB has a much faster fundamental
>speed.
>
>I don't write programs for windoze, on purpose. I prefer OS/2 and most
>of my programs don't have a user interface, they are command line driven
>but some run as many as 3000 times per hour.
>
>73, Jerry, K0CQ
>
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