Win32 VM Update & Request for help

tim Rowledge tim at rowledge.org
Thu Aug 30 16:40:31 UTC 2007


On 30-Aug-07, at 8:55 AM, Andreas Raab wrote:

> tim Rowledge wrote:
>> A splash screen should be configurable in some way. Ideally it  
>> ought to be generated by the image! The *real* problem here is the  
>> whole " if the time to show something interesting is a couple of  
>> seconds" part. There really isn't much of  an excuse for such a  
>> delay.
>
> You mean loading the image and relocating pointers is no excuse?  
> Running the startup code, redrawing the screen? No excuses either?

It's a *reason* but not an *excuse*. Yes, there is a load of assorted  
stuff done as the VM starts up and loads the image (which could take  
several seconds on some machine/setups) and then as the image starts  
up. That's the reason(s). The excuse really adds up to "we haven't  
bothered to improve things". As John mentioned, it seems likely that  
some of the VM related memory scanning could be improved. Looking at  
the fairly intimidating list of things done as part of the image  
startup I feel sure we could do a lot better - not least by having a  
smaller simpler better thought out image in the first place.


> Even a basic image takes about a second to start (the delay between  
> launching it and seeing something is noticeable); if you actually  
> do anything when you start the image or if you simply have larger  
> images it easily takes longer.
>
>> I don't think it would be appropriate to have a window of any sort  
>> display when you are starting a Seaside server for example. Or  
>> running on an IBM 3090. Or a signet ring.
>
> And which part of "optional" splash screen is so hard to  
> understand? Remove splash.bmp and it's gone.
>
> Cheers,
>   - Andreas
>


tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Any program that runs right is obsolete.





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