Mersenne: Suggestions for Prime95 v19
Hi all, Now before the new version of Prime95 is released I have some suggestions for new function which should not be too difficult to add: - A menu item that forces the program to write intermediate data to disk. It is useful, when the user wants to install a new program or play a game which probably forces the computer to crash. So it is possible to save data without exiting the program before a riskful action. - A function which prvents writing to disk for some time. When the user writes a CDr, it sometimes is dangerous, when prime95 writes intermediate results to disk during that time. - Extended status information -relative speed of the system (e.g. using rolling average) -hours in use -# flops done (calculated) -# iterations done (total of all exponents) -history: all tested iterations on this machine -processor usage (compared with the unused system Maybe George Woltman can implement some of these functions, so that the use better knows what the program does. Cheers Reto _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Suggestions for Prime95 v19
- A menu item that forces the program to write intermediate data to disk. It is useful, when the user wants to install a new program or Doesn't stopping work with the escape key or Test/Stop already do this? You could simply stop and restart work in order to commit results to the disk. - A function which prvents writing to disk for some time. When the user writes a CDr, it sometimes is dangerous, when prime95 writes intermediate results to disk during that time. If this is a problem on your system, then you could increase the interval between disk writes to some large value, and then stop and restart work as above to commit results. I've burned three CD-R discs at quad speed with my new drive recently, and I haven't had any problems. It is nice not to have to stop Prime95 for this. Of course this will depend on how well your computer keeps up with the stream of data required by the CD-R drive. On a slower computer, a disk write from Prime95 could theoretically cause a buffer underrun. The best way to find out is with a test burn. I doubt that Prime95 will cause many problems in this regard. - Extended status information -relative speed of the system (e.g. using rolling average) -hours in use -# flops done (calculated) -# iterations done (total of all exponents) -history: all tested iterations on this machine -processor usage (compared with the unused system This sounds a little more involved (from a programming standpoint) that it is worth. But I could be wrong. Foghorn Leghorn [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Suggestions for Prime95 v19
::Reto Keiser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Now before the new version of Prime95 is released I have some suggestions for new function which should not be too difficult to add: Some of these functions exist already in v18 and prior versions, just not as you might think... - A menu item that forces the program to write intermediate data to disk. It is useful, when the user wants to install a new program or play a game which probably forces the computer to crash. So it is possible to save data without exiting the program before a riskful action. Prime95 already does this if you use the menu items TEST | STOP and then TEST | CONTINUE. - A function which prvents writing to disk for some time. When the user writes a CDr, it sometimes is dangerous, when prime95 writes intermediate results to disk during that time. Again, you can either use the procedure above to stop Prime95 before and start it after CD-R recording, or you can change the minutes between disk writes under OPTIONS | PREFERENCES before beginning recording. - Extended status information -relative speed of the system (e.g. using rolling average) -hours in use Not sure what you're looking for here... Possibly, the same information Prime95 uses to calculate ECD (estimated completion dates)?? -# flops done (calculated) Hmmm... This seems like it might be a little difficult. First, Prime95 uses integer code on 486, Cyrix, and AMD K5 chips when performing factoring. Second, each iteration of a test involves many calculations. Third, Prime95 is running as a background (idle process) task. -# iterations done (total of all exponents) -history: all tested iterations on this machine Take a look at the RESULTS.TXT file in the directory with Prime95. It lists the results from all previous exponents... -processor usage (compared with the unused system Running as a background (idle process) task makes this unfeasible. You'd be better off using something like WinTop in Windows95 (found in the Win95 KernelToys) or something like it for other OSes... Eric Hahn _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
