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TCv9.0 much slower than TCI v2.0/4NT

The test to compare TC vs TCI is simple: run ztreewin, root only method, in a tab. Then exit ztreewin to dos, without exiting TC or TCI. You will notice that ztree runs much, much slower under TCv9.0 than under TCI, no matter how many times the test is sequentially run. Seems like a video issue. Testing under Vista Ultimate SP1, 1gb ram. Hopefully this can be fixed in the future.
 
> The test to compare TC vs TCI is simple: run ztreewin, root only method,
> in a tab. Then exit ztreewin to dos, without exiting TC or TCI. You will
> notice that ztree runs much, much slower under TCv9.0 than under TCI, no
> matter how many times the test is sequentially run. Seems like a video
> issue. Testing under Vista Ultimate SP1, 1gb ram. Hopefully this can be
> fixed in the future.

I can't reproduce any problem with the display speed, but I'm not sure
exactly what you're trying to do -- can you be more explicit?

However, ztreewin is a poor choice to try to run in a Take Command window.
It always resizes its window to 80x25, regardless of the original TCMD
window size. (This is typical, though unnecessary, in DOS apps, but there's
no reason to be doing it in a Win32 console app!)

Since TCMD can do most or all of what ztreewin does without requiring an
external app, I'm unclear why you would want to run ztreewin. Is there a
particular ztreewin feature you need that isn't in TCMD?

Rex Conn
JP Software
 
There is really no error message being displayed. What you want to confirm is that when starting ztree in a TCMD tab ztree takes a long time to show its first display. Sometimes it looks as if it froze, but wait long enough, and it finally shows. There doesn't seem to be any disk I/O at this point, so the delay can be attributed to screen handling. On the other hand, running Ztree in a TCI tab, starting from a 4NT prompt, ztree displays instantly.

Why do i use ztree? Because tabbed shell/4NT/ztree conform an unbeatably fast and flexible working environment.

However, ztreewin is a poor choice to try to run in a Take Command window.
It always resizes its window to 80x25, regardless of the original TCMD
window size. (This is typical, though unnecessary, in DOS apps, but there's
no reason to be doing it in a Win32 console app!)

Not necessarily. You can go configure ztree (alt-f10), goto 2nd screen (press 2). In options A and B (number of characters wide and number of rows high), set to MAX. Save and exit config. Now ztree uses all available screen size. It's pretty cool.

It would be real nice if TCMD would run as fast as TCI
 
TestingTCMD wrote:

> There is really no error message being displayed. What you
> want to confirm is that when starting ztree in a TCMD tab
> ztree takes a long time to show its first display. Sometimes
> it looks as if it froze, but wait long enough, and it
> finally shows. There doesn't seem to be any disk I/O at this
> point, so the delay can be attributed to screen handling.

Not reproducible here; ztw.exe displays in roughly .2 seconds.

It can't be screen handling as that is updated (asynchronously) every 20
milliseconds, and is completely independent (and in a different process)
from the ztree console.


> ---Quote---
> However, ztreewin is a poor choice to try to run in a Take Command window.
> It always resizes its window to 80x25, regardless of the original TCMD
> window size. (This is typical, though unnecessary, in DOS apps, but there's
> no reason to be doing it in a Win32 console app!)
> ---End Quote---
> Not necessarily. You can go configure ztree (alt-f10), goto 2nd screen
> (press 2). In options A and B (number of characters wide and number of
> rows high), set to MAX. Save and exit config. Now ztree uses all
> available screen size. It's pretty cool.

Tried that, and it uses the wrong number of rows & columns and destroys
the existing scrollback buffer. (Including wrapping the "about" box
from the right edge to the left edge, missing half of its text.)

Using the real number of rows & columns gets the page displayed right,
though it still destroys the console buffer for that tab.


> It would be real nice if TCMD would run as fast as TCI

In every test I've run TCMD is 50-100% faster than TCI. Do you have
anything other than Ztree which runs slower in TCMD?

Rex Conn
JP Software
 
It's real strange you can't reproduce because I get the same behavior in Win XP Home. Ztree displays just fine in XP and Vista setting the MAX parameter running in a TCMD or TCI tab - no scrollbars

I haven't tested anything else.

I'll test some more and report back. Maybe it's the AV (using Avast free).
 
Oops, just found out why you get ztree scrollbar. In ztree settings, option B of 2nd screen, number of rows high, set to MAX:-9, which means use 9 rows less than MAX. Need to set this way to leave space for rows used by TCI/TCMD, such as Tabs, status line, etc. Setting to MAX only works fine if running in a 4nt shell only, not tabbed.
 
Ok, think i found something.

Testing in two different virtual machines using xp pro/sp2, no av, using only windows firewall, no other 3rd party software.

One vm uses tci, the other tcmd

When running ztree under tci with tci's default installation parameters, ztree is just as slow as when it runs in a tcmd tab. Going to tci options, windows tab, setting to max, fixes the slow loading issue. Ztree is set to MAX,MAX:-9, as explained in previous post. Running the same test, setting TCMD and TCC to MAX where available, doesn't fix the issue, that is, ztree is always taking a long time to load. TCMD is set to show only the shell window. When running ztw /y (which tells ztree not restore the screen after quitting) the slow load time issue is fixed for about the first five consecutive load/unloads. At about the fifth, it gets slow again. Continuing starting/quitting it, runs fine, but slows every 5th load.

Interestingly, running edit in both environments shows that it has issues under tci since it doesn't always display. It always works fine under tcmd.

Still, as well as edit runs under tcmd, it's not a useful software as ztree is, which is undergoing constant development and is more appealing.

That's all i can say for now. Hope it helps.
 
The problem here may be "virtual", not "real"

That is, how the virtual machines handle their video.

I used ztw years ago and found it far inferior to the power of an
enhanced command prompt and batch files. I have been using tcmd since
version 2 and I have not used ztw in over a decade. It seems your
workflow is already adapted to ztw. It didn't do it for me.

In fact, I d/l'd ztw again and tried it out to see if my memory was
accurate, which it is. For those of us adapted to tcmd, ztw does not
offer anything new or better; it seems that you are saying the reverse.
That's why the concept of shareware works.


On Thu, 2008-12-11 at 10:17 -0600, TestingTCMD wrote:

> Testing in two different virtual machines using xp pro/sp2, no av, using only windows firewall, no other 3rd party software.
>
> One vm uses tci, the other tcmd
>
> When running ztree under tci with tci's default installation parameters, ztree is just as slow as when it runs in a tcmd tab. Going to tci options, windows tab, setting to max, fixes the slow loading issue. Ztree is set to MAX,MAX:-9, as explained in previous post. Running the same test, setting TCMD and TCC to MAX where available, doesn't fix the issue, that is, ztree is always taking a long time to load. TCMD is set to show only the shell window. When running ztw /y (which tells ztree not restore the screen after quitting) the slow load time issue is fixed for about the first five consecutive load/unloads. At about the fifth, it gets slow again. Continuing starting/quitting it, runs fine, but slows every 5th load.
>
> Interestingly, running edit in both environments shows that it has issues under tci since it doesn't always display. It always works fine under tcmd.
>
> Still, as well as edit runs under tcmd, it's not a useful software as ztree is, which is undergoing constant development and is more appealing.
>
> That's all i can say for now. Hope it helps.
 
The problem here may be "virtual", not "real"

That is, how the virtual machines handle their video.

When I ran TCI and TCMD on the same "real" machine, the results were even more confusing. TCI slowed down ztree when TCMD was installed simultaneously. So that's why I ran the tests in separate VMs.

I've also been using enhanced command prompt and batch files for years too, that is 4dos/4nt. I even load&manage ztree from 4nt batch/aliases. The reason I use it for serious work it is it lets me explore/view hardrives just as plain DOS, hiding or changing/interpreting nothing, like Windows explorer does. So i´m a bit amazed no one here seems to be using it. Anyway, it's all right if TCMD isn't "fixed". TCI still does a good job.
 
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