Re: Cursor movement in Mac-XP {+PC-XP}

[Michael Norman michael.norman@xxxxxxxx]

Finally got VPC set up and running on a 1.5 G Dell with 778 of ram. We
tried running it with 256 ram, but it was pokey. Now it's just sluggish.
The descriptor, however, is relative, which is to say all the programs run
in VPC are a bit sluggish. The XyDos cursor in W98SE VPC is fine. No skips,
hops, jerks bumps. I sight-tested it against cursors in XP in MSWord and
Eudora and so on. Xy's cursor seems to behave exactly as they do. With the
right CR key held down it moves easily across the line, not as fluidly as
it does under full-screen dos, but smooth enough for government
work...actually all composition. Loaded a 130 page file. Home to end and
back was instantaneous, as was searching and replacing. The cursor itself
streaks just a bit, like wet paint, but again this is not a serious flaw. I
worked for more than an hour and quickly became accustomed to the
differences between the virtual window XY and XY in full-screen dos.
Key seems to be RAM. The more the better with VPC. And you have to allocate
both XP ram and virtual ram properly, which is to say we just pushed the
limit in the VPC settings until we got a warning, then backed off a bit.
Bottom line, VPC seems to be the best jerry-rigging for XyDos under XP
until, and if, SP2 fixes the problem. I note M$ is about to begin shipping
their version of the product.
Our budget will also allow for a VMWARE test, and I'll report on that soon.
Meanwhile I too saw the DosBox item in the NYTimes. Hope someone tries it out.

Michael Norman