8 ms·

Revenge of DESQview

leejoramo 2y ago
I used DESQview for a number of years, and always think about it when see new TUI systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview
- sushidev 2y ago
  I tried to use desqview but it was too slow on my 386 33mhz machine… not sure how much RAM it had back then but I recall it was the bottleneck and swapping to disk caused everything to lag.
  - lproven 2y ago
    I think you are confusing old memories here. DESQview did not do any memory management of its own, and it did not use graphics. It was entirely local and had no networking. It was famously fast. It was a DOS multitasker so it managed DOS tasks, meaning multiple slots of 640kB. On a 386 with 4MB of RAM you could have 6 full-size DOS VMs with a bit left over. If you were a power user you could still have say a big 1-2-3 spreadsheet in EMS plus a few DOS VMs. DESQview delegated memory management to QEMM386, and QEMM386 did not do swapping. It didn't need to. DESQview/X was a totally different product, with a full GUI, so much bigger and slower -- and it added an optional extension that added full virtual memory with swapping to disk. I am wondering if you are mixing up DESQview (small, fast, local) with DV/x (big, complicated, networked, had optional VM)? Or indeed DV/x with something else altogether? OS/2 maybe? Because if it was swapping, it wasn't DESQview, not in any normal sane config anyway. It might be possible to add DV/x VM to plain old DESQview but I never heard of anyone doing that.
nxobject 2y ago
It’s funny - I think of DESQView/X, their fully compliant X11 server complete with both Motif and OpenLook. The exact opposite of vanilla DESQview.
throwawayForMe2 2y ago
I also remember the first version of Smalltalk from Digitalk that was character based and windowed. It was called Methods. I can’t seem to find any reference to it on the web now.
- igouy 2y ago
  "Methods, our character-based Smalltalk, is now available for $79- It has all of the features of Smalltalk/V except graphics, rules, source-level debugger, and object-swapping. However, it supports color, includes the communication package, and does not require a mouse." magazine page 97 https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1986-10/page/n108/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1986-10/page/n108/...
- xkriva11 2y ago
  It is downloadable on WinWorld.
pjmlp 2y ago
Just like whenever I see someone praising Ratatui, what comes to my mind is Turbo Vision, Clipper and curses.

Revenge of DESQview

I used DESQview for a number of years, and always think about it when see new TUI systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview

sushidev 2y ago
I tried to use desqview but it was too slow on my 386 33mhz machine… not sure how much RAM it had back then but I recall it was the bottleneck and swapping to disk caused everything to lag.
- lproven 2y ago
  I think you are confusing old memories here. DESQview did not do any memory management of its own, and it did not use graphics. It was entirely local and had no networking. It was famously fast. It was a DOS multitasker so it managed DOS tasks, meaning multiple slots of 640kB. On a 386 with 4MB of RAM you could have 6 full-size DOS VMs with a bit left over. If you were a power user you could still have say a big 1-2-3 spreadsheet in EMS plus a few DOS VMs. DESQview delegated memory management to QEMM386, and QEMM386 did not do swapping. It didn't need to. DESQview/X was a totally different product, with a full GUI, so much bigger and slower -- and it added an optional extension that added full virtual memory with swapping to disk. I am wondering if you are mixing up DESQview (small, fast, local) with DV/x (big, complicated, networked, had optional VM)? Or indeed DV/x with something else altogether? OS/2 maybe? Because if it was swapping, it wasn't DESQview, not in any normal sane config anyway. It might be possible to add DV/x VM to plain old DESQview but I never heard of anyone doing that.

nxobject 2y ago

It’s funny - I think of DESQView/X, their fully compliant X11 server complete with both Motif and OpenLook. The exact opposite of vanilla DESQview.

throwawayForMe2 2y ago

I also remember the first version of Smalltalk from Digitalk that was character based and windowed. It was called Methods. I can’t seem to find any reference to it on the web now.

igouy 2y ago
"Methods, our character-based Smalltalk, is now available for $79- It has all of the features of Smalltalk/V except graphics, rules, source-level debugger, and object-swapping. However, it supports color, includes the communication package, and does not require a mouse." magazine page 97 https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1986-10/page/n108/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1986-10/page/n108/...
xkriva11 2y ago
It is downloadable on WinWorld.

pjmlp 2y ago

Just like whenever I see someone praising Ratatui, what comes to my mind is Turbo Vision, Clipper and curses.