A COMPARISON OF NEODESK AND ATARI'S DESKTOP
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 an interesting study conducted by the folks a Gribnif...

      We were sitting around the other day and decided that we had  never 
 really  done a direct comparison of the speed increase of  NeoDesk  over 
 the built-in desktop.

      For these tests we used a Mega ST4 with the Blitter turned on.  The 
 machine  was equipped with the newer TOS 1.4 and was running on a  SM124 
 monochrome monitor.   We also repeated the tests on a Moniterm Viking  2 
 monitor.   Apart from the NeoDesk Control Panel,  no other software  was 
 running  (when  the Moniterm was used the Moniterm driver  software  was 
 also  running).   A plain out-of-the-box copy of NeoDesk 2.05 was  used.  
 The newer TOS 1.4 was used since it is supposed to have the latest  (and 
 fastest) version of the built-in desktop.

      Since a manual stopwatch was used,  there is probably error  margin 
 of about .3 second.   All tests were done three times,  best time of the 
 three was used.

      We created a folder with 800 files within it.   This directory  was 
 then  scrolled  from top to bottom with a series of  different  options.  
 This was done by holding the mouse over the scroll arrow and holding  it 
 down  until all the files had been scrolled.   When NeoDesk was used  to 
 display text all the file size, date, and time displays were left on (to 
 be identical to the built-in desktop as possible).

 On the SM124 monochrome monitor:

 Type of Test                     NeoDesk 2.05     Built-in Desktop
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  min:secs          min:secs

 With a window that was the full
 width of the screen and 2 icons
 high (show as icons)............   0:07.4            0:57.1

 With a window that was the full
 width of the screen and 5 lines
 high of text (show as text).....   0:48.5            5:30.2

 With a window the full size of
 the screen (show as icons)......   0:08.7            1:24.5

 With a window the full size of
 the screen (show as text).......   0:58.6            6:23.8


 On the Moniterm Viking 2 monitor:

 Type of Test                     NeoDesk 2.05      Built-in Desktop
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  min:secs          min:secs

 With a window that was the full
 width of the screen and 2 icons
 high (show as icons)............   0:05.7            0:37.7

 With a window that was the full
 width of the screen and 5 lines
 high of text (show as text).....   0:30.7            2:17.2

 With a window the full size of
 the screen (show as icons)......   0:06.4            (see below)

 With a window the full size of
 the screen (show as text).......   0:48.31           6:07.3


      It  seems  that the built-in desktop is has problems  displaying  a 
 window  the  size of the Moniterm screen if it is full  of  icons.   The 
 built-in  desktop  can only display up to 249 icons in a window  at  the 
 same time.   If you attempt to display over 249 icons in the same window 
 it will start behaving in some rather peculiar ways.   It will refuse to 
 scroll and when it does scroll it will do so incorrectly.  Seems that no 
 one  ever bothered to see if the built-in desktop could handle a  screen 
 of the size of the Moniterm.  Because of this we were unable to test its 
 scrolling speed on a full size window on the Moniterm.

 More interesting information discovered while doing these tests:

 Maximum number of files viewable in a full screen window:

 Type of display                  NeoDesk 2.05      Built-in Desktop
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   # of files         # of files

 SM124 Monochrome, Icons..........     64                 49
 SM124 Monochrome, Text...........     18                 18
 SM124, with no text, size, or
   date display (only NeoDesk can
   do this).......................     72                n/a
 SM124, with no options, in small
   text size (again, only NeoDesk
   can do this)...................    128                n/a

 Moniterm, Icons..................    368                249*
 Moniterm, Text...................    147**              147**
 Moniterm, no text options (only
   NeoDesk can do this)...........    441                n/a

 Moniterm, no text options in
   small text size (again, only
   NeoDesk can do this)...........    880                n/a

 *  Due to a bug in the built-in desktop, it will only display the first 
    249  icons  that can fit in a window. In theory it  could  display  a 
    total of 300 icons.

 ** With  all file size,  date,  and time information displayed both  the 
    built-in  desktop  and NeoDesk display the information in  3  columns 
    wide.   Unlike  the built-in desktop,  you can turn off the  multiple 
    column display with NeoDesk.

    Most of the speed increase in NeoDesk derives from one simple  thing.  
 We  do  not  use the VDI (Virtual Device Interface) part  of  the  Atari 
 operating  system.   This is the part that handles all  screen  drawing, 
 blitting,  and text drawing.  The built-in desktop (and just about every 
 other  program  available for the ST) depend heavily  on  the  VDI.   By 
 writing our own drawing,  blitting, and text drawing routines in our own 
 high-speed code which uses the LINEA we are able to create a MUCH faster 
 environment.   Sure this requires much more work, but we think the above 
 numbers speak for themselves.

 For more information contact your dealer or:

                             GRIBNIF SOFTWARE
                                PO Box 350
                            Hadley, MA.  01035
                              1-413-584-7887

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