Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!munnari.oz.au!manuel!aerodec.anu.edu.au!csc
From: tri...@aerodec.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Ventura 3 : evaluation
Message-ID: <28435@aerodec.anu.edu.au>
Date: 4 Mar 91 18:11:22 GMT
Sender: n...@newshost.anu.edu.au
Organization: Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Lines: 80

I Just upgraded Ventura at work from 2.0 professional extension to 3.0 under
windows. I thought it would be a good idea to pass on my experiences so
others can decide if it is worth it.

I have been running it on two machines.  One is a 16MHz 286 clone with
2Mb, a hercules mono card and a 40Mb stepper hard disk (yes - a
stepper!).  The other is a 16MHz 386SX with 4Mb, a Trident 8800 SVGA
board at 800*600 and a 40Mb voice coil hard disk.  Both are running
windows 3.0. 

On the 286 I had version 2 set up to just use 640K and then used the
rest of my ram as a cache (using smartdrv). On the 386 I emulated EMS to
the tune of 2Mb and then had a 1Mb cache (with smartdrv). I couldn't
find a EMS emulator for the 286 that would work with ventua 2, it seems
VERY fussy as to the extent of the emulation. 

Under windows 3 with version 3 I have the 386 using 1.6Mb of cache using
HYPERDISK4.20 (great program).  I have staged writes enabled.  I am
running in standard mode (for speed).  On the 286 I haven't set up
hyperdisk yet so I'm using a 512K cache (ie.  2nd parameter in smartdrv)
from smartdrv. 

My documents consist of between 1 page faxes and a 60 page thesis with
several large equations per page (a theoretical physics thesis). The
thesis also has about 20 diagrams consisting mostly of imported HPGL
files but also some figures drawn within Ventura.

PRICE:
	I think we paid about $AUS250 to upgrade. I am not sure of the
exact amount as it wasn't done by me.

COMPATABILITY:
	Ventura 3 happily used all my version 2 files. After using them
in 3 they still worked in 2. I assume this means the file formats have
not changed.

SPEED:
	On the 386 version 3 is much slower. This is especially true of
screen updates when drawing equations and figures. It takes me a factor
of 2 or 3 times longer to page down if there are several equations on
the page. Without equations it's bearable. The drawing of figures of
both the kinds I use is much slower. Probably a factor of 2 (at least).

	On the 286 version 3 is much faster!! This is because in version
2 without EMS my documents were too large and it kept having to go to
disk. Under windows 3 it can use XMS which saves all those disk
operations. (especially with a slow hard disk). Also the hercules card
is much faster (its mono) so screen updates are fast.

	Printing is much slower. I tend to print to an EPS file then
dump this via FTP to a unix box for printing. This is several times
slower than in version 2. I still use it tho` because to run version 2 I
have to edit my config.sys and reboot.

FEATURES:
	Apart from being able to use the keyboard very little was added
that wasn't already in the professional extension. The screen will now
scroll in some situations, but because the scroll is so slow it's hardly
worth it.
	Several options have been added to the importation of some file
types. For example when bringing in HPGL you get a choice of 7 different
plotter types, along with "standard" and "enhanced" modes, and dialogs
to choose the color and thickness of each pen! This seems a little over
the top for most users, but could be useful in some cases.
	The layout on the screen is a bit different. It doesn't make
much of a difference but is a bit more flexible. The list of files, list
of tags and "toolbox" are separately in windows so they can be moved (or
removed). The idea of the toolbox isn't a big leap forward as one
article I saw claimed. It doesn't do any real harm though.

SUMMARY:
	I you want to run in windows or don't have EMS on a 286 then
it's well worth it. If not then you'll find it VERY slow. I'm using it
because I run other windows apps and I like having NCSA Telnet available
just by flicking. If it was my only app then I'd stick to version 2.


---
Andrew Tridgell
tri...@aerodec.anu.edu.au