-=> Steven Horn said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "APPOSITE" on 05-04-03  01:24.....

 SH> It looks like work.  Autosketch 8.0 is available but your PC can't run
 SH> it. 

As I expected.

 GM> As I understood it, it intercepts disk accesses and the running of
 GM> EXE and COM files by changing the related BIOS vectors to point to
 GM> the TSR. So it wouldn't need to steal cycles except as the aps
 GM> started up, or during disk writes.

 SH> It has to be loaded which in itself will steal a few cycles.

Yes, once and once only. After that it just sits in memory
waiting to be accessed. I don't consider that as "stealing
cycles".

   And what
 SH> do the interceptions do?

Absolutely nothing until there is a disk read or write or a new
ap is started up. I don't consider that as "stealing cycles"
either.

To me, "stealing cycles" implies a background task that is
running continuously. I think most other people consider it that
way too.

Normally this causes the foreground task to slow down unless it
has a lot of redundant time waiting for keyboard or other input.

To go back to my previous analogy of the security checks at the
airport, "stealing cycles" is analogous to the security personel
stopping you and checking you every step or so. This would cause
a massive slowdown.

OTOH Thunderbyte causes no slowing of the processing, except an
almost imperceptible delay in disk writes some of the time, or in
the starting of new apps.

Although there is sometimes a noticeable delay when a floppy disk
is accessed for the first time, as in loading or saving from your
application.

From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
   "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E

... There's this to be said for sour grapes: you won't get fat on them.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

--- FLAME v2.0/b