[trim]

ML>> it is doing but it would be very very very multitasker
ML>> friendly... on the other hand, if i slice away only
ML>> once per 1000 records processed, the application would
ML>> do the disk processing very fast but be very
ML>> multitasker unfriendly...

 CH> This is stuff I can use, cause what I was doing was had
 CH> it release a slice not in a wait procedure, but in
 CH> times it is getting input and you said it would freeze
 CH> the program and take a long time to complete.  This is
 CH> helpful.  Cause if it is running a task. I should wait
 CH> a while, before giving up a timeslice, but when it is
 CH> just waitting for input I should give up a timeslice
 CH> each time. (tell it to sleep).., because it is sorta not
 CH> processing anything until input is givin'.

yes, pretty much... glad i was able to confirm for you...

ML>> what operating system, version and timeslice style?? all
ML>> three are needed to be known... there are several ways of
ML>> timeslicing... choosing the proper one depends on the
ML>> operating system and in some cases, which version of the
ML>> operating system...

 CH> Basicly you gave me the ones that I have already. (not the
 CH> code, but told me the ones).  OS/2-Desqview-Windows(real mode)-DOS.
 CH> All versions :)~.

ok... as i understand it TOPView also uses the DESQview slice call...

 CH> I need to know about Win2k though..

AFAIK, i just use the same windows slice... i'm not aware of any other...

ML>> FWIW: the only difference between my Warp3 and Warp4 slicing
ML>> is the Warp3 stuff is set to sleep for 2ms whereas the Warp4
ML>> stuff is set to 0 (meaning "sleep now!")...

 CH> ?..
 CH> Do you mean that a timeslice pauses your program or ie sleep.
 CH> I sorta understand this part, but just wantted to make sure.

ummm... the 2 tells that routine to sleep for 2ms... 0 means sleep now and
give up /this/ slice... i forget why i ended up doing it that way but it
had to do with some change that IBM had put in Warp4... it may have changed
in later fixpacks for Warp4 but i've not updated and tested... since i've
also had no complaints, i can only assume that things are working as
desired...

ML>> i don't know that i can show the entire code setup that i
ML>> use because there some inline asm as well as numerous asm
ML>> routines mixed in with the pascal.. can possibly post the
ML>> actual slicing calls if desired... i had to play with them
ML>> and work some things out for myself... some of my
ML>> experimenting did cause lockups and lost data...

 CH> That is alright I already have code your talking about, but
 CH> just wantted to understand the way it works better and find
 CH> out proper ways of using it.

you may very well have the stuff i have... i dunno... i've /lots/ of it...
some is similar, some is identicle and some is different... i just took
what i thought was the better and what i was able to understand and pieced
it together in my own way...

 CH> You have taught me a few things.

excellent!

 CH> 1: TimeSlices pauses your program and lets other process to
 CH> run. or also called sleep.

in so many words, yes, that's probably as accurate as we can get it...

 CH> 2: So, it is best to do a timeslice when your program isn't
 CH> doing
 CH>    heavy processing. If you do a timeslice in this processing
 CH>    don't do it back to back, let the program run for a while
 CH>    before giving one up or it will take a long time to finish
 CH>    what it is doing.  On the other hand if you don't give one
 CH>    after a certain time the OS will suffer from lack of (for
 CH>    lack of words) cpu time.

right... if you slice while reading records, only slice after reading X
number of records... also note that this is not a fixed number, either...
some tuning is necessary...

 CH> 3: Try to give up timeslices when your program is idle, like
 CH>    waitting for input.  Then process that input and while
 CH>    processing that input see #2.

right...

 CH> 4: It do mader when and where a timeslice is in the code. See
 CH>    #1, #2, #3.

not that i'm aware of... i just added slicing to one of my languishing
projects and let it slice at the top of each loop thru the reading of the
records and processing of the datafiles... its simple counter program that
gathers record sizes from several datafiles for each record in the master
datafile... if the secondary files exist, i slice before reading and
processing them... if they do not exist, i don't slice... this gives me the
fastest traversal thru the master datafile and then decent speed while
processing the secondary datafiles... i've got a distributed computing
project running on my system so it hovers about 50% utilization all the
time... this project of mine only taps it up a few percent... i guess i
should stop that background process and let my cpu usage drop to 0% and
then test my routines to see how badly they really do impact the system...

)\/(ark