> Date sent: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:31:35 +0000
> From: Howard Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: In Search of a Good (Dos) Task Switcher
>
Dear Howard,
My experience with DosShell (is part of MS-DOS 5 and later):
- It is *very* reliable together with MS-DOS, even with the DOS
7.10 fragment in W98.
- It is not beautiful, but easy to understand, offers a table of
all running *and* all not running applications by one keystroke.
- It is a pity that there is *no* kind of clipboard to submit text
data from one application to the other (you have to solve this with
temporary files).
- Even Arachne fits into it, *but*: Task switcher does not work with
the most sophisticated video modes. If you configure Arachne for VESA
and multiple resolution, you have to exit the program regularly. With
more modest video modes, you can switch as within any other program.
If you switch while online you risk a crash. Solution: Set up two
batch files with two configurations of Arachne. The high level
graphics is for online use only. If you really need to switch to another
DOS application while online (filemanager, mail), you can do so from
Arachne. The lower, but still sufficient level of graphics makes
sense with offline browsing. Example: If you want to edit, convert or
evaluate webpages it is probably desireable to switch between the
graphical browser and the text mode word processor. Even HTML editing
becomes a lot easier with task switching: One task contains your
favourite text editor with several HTML documents open. On the other
task Arachne shows you immediately the result of any changes (you just
press the hotkey R to reload the file). You can comfortably check
links etc.
In short: The MS DOSShell seems to be much better than the whole MS
WINDOWS. I do do not know the alternatives though. I am afraid of DR-
DOS - at the first glance the task switcher looks very impressive.
But it would certainly take me along time to learn DR-DOS's method
of codepage switching for my multilingual keyboards and screens.
Everything is a little different and who knows, if in the end it will
work as well as in MS-DOS. Has anybody task-switched with Arachne
under DR-DOS? With what results?
With best regards
Christof Lange
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.volny.cz/christianpeace
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