Hi Michael, thanks for accepting a good part of my patch :-). > 2. After one validates a > handle, one does not need to check that a handle index will later > overflow...
Uhm, yes. True. The movzx e?x,?l does not really improve things compared to movzx e?x,?x, but it is not bigger in RAM either, at least. > EMS initially required installing special memory cards... > XMS is so much cleaner, I think most applications that weren't already dead > went to using that when it became common, unless they were locked into > supporting sub-80286 machines... > After XMS came the DOS extender waves with VCPI and DPMI... Indeed. But hardware EMS 3.0 is pretty much dead, so you can just as well write EMS software which requires a 386 CPU. In either case, XMS *is* better. The only thing where EMS is better is swapping. Modern software like those free USBASPI4 DOS drivers still do not use EMS: They allocate a locked XMS handle and use a DOS extender to run their stuff *in* XMS, without having to transfer data to DOS RAM (or map it to DOS RAM, if they were using EMS). I tried running Lemmings 3d in AWE32 sound mode tonight. It simply did not work. Even though I *remembered* that some obscure DR DOS EMM386 load style with the DPMI built into that one made it work, it is much cleaner to use SoundBlaster and Adlib/MIDI sound (then no EMS is needed, but having free EMM386 loaded does not hurt either). However, I am somehow unable to run AWEUTIL now (a - probably protected mode or NMI based - TSR which grabs MIDI data and redirects it to the wavetable engine of SB AWE32). Will check. Generally speaking, EMS 3.2 plus VCPI is enough for all software which you will normally have. Some early DOS extenders could not use VCPI, but for them, you simply must not use any EMM386 at all. Having EMS 4.0 is only cooler ;-). Does anybody know software which really GAINS from EMS 4.0? Eric PS: Manifest seems to be confused by FreeDOS UMB chains, but I have no other DOS to compare. After all, MFT is 12 years old by now. Whatever. No crash or anything, but the displayed memory information looks strange. PS Aitor: Best wishes for your work and for your Easter plans :-). ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
