Release notes for WITS v1.0
=============================

System requirements for running WITS
====================================
The test computer should have at least four megabytes of memory and five
megabytes of space on the hard disk drive.  Since actual application
programs are used for the test(s) space must be available on the disk
drive for temporary and swap files.  

*************************************
WITS WILL ONLY RUN UNDER WINDOWS 3.1.

Before running WITS close ALL Windows
3.1 applications
*************************************

Installing WITS
===============
Run SETUP.EXE on the WITS disk from within Windows.  The default directory
is C:\WITS.  You may chose another.  At the end of the install the 
program files will be in the choosen directory while WITS.INI will 
be in the main Windows directory as well as *.VBX files, 
STATUS.DLL and VBRUN200.DLL.

If you were a beta site and if, after installing WITS, you receive
error message about wrong version software or other strange and
inexplicable error messages you will need to manually clean off the
old copy, especially *.VBX, GSW.EXE and GSWDLL.DLL files.  After
doing this re-install WITS.  If you still have problems contact
us via Compuserve at 71250,2146.

Major functions of WITS
=======================
WITS is intended to measure graphics board performance in actual
Windows applications.  These applications include:

	Microsoft Word for Windows (version 1.x & 2.x)
	Microsoft Excel (version 2.1, 3.0 & 4.0)
	Corel Draw! (version 3.0)
	Aldus PhotoStyler (version 1.0)
	QuarkXpress (version 3.1)

WITS drives the application programs via a combination of DDE and simulated
keystrokes.  WITS measures time taken for various graphics board functions
and reports these back at the end of the test.  Care has been taken to 
ensure that other factors in an application programs performance, for 
example disk access times, are excluded from measurement.  

The version features encrypted script files (*.SCR) and password-protected 
data files.  Encrypting the files ensures that users will not be able to 
alter them to their advantage.

We suggest that all other Windows programs be shut down before running
WITS, even ones being tested.  The issue is that resources Windows
allocates while a program is running are still available when the program
restarts.  This will have its greatest effect on the font efficiency 
measurements discussed below.

WITS is written in Visual Basic and the Professional Toolkit for VB.
Engenious Solutions (510.531.5681) provided the driver profiler software
and the refresh rate monitoring software.  The driver time measurements
are via a reduced functionality version of their Perform video driver 
profiling product.

Refresh rate measurement
========================
The routine for measuring video refresh rate works ONLY for VGA boards.
If you are using a coprocessor-based board, for example a TI 34020 board,
this routine will not work.  It will measure the refresh rate of the VGA
board used to boot up but not the coprocessor board when running Windows.

Word for Windows notes
======================
WITS will open Word for Windows and set 'Draft' mode to off
(no checkmark).  It will also set 'Print Preview' to single page preview 
('Two Pages' should show when in Print Preview mode).  

When the test is finished the results are presented in both a chart
and grid.  You will notice that the labels for each row are, for 
example, "Page Scroll" and "Page scroll - cached".  This refers
to the fact that, during the first page scroll, fonts are read in
for proper display.  Once the fonts are loaded, or cached, the scroll
operation can proceed more quickly.  The cached scroll times are used
to generate the total time of the test.  The release version of WITS
will compute the font efficiency, or time ratio, of uncached to 
cached fonts.

Excel notes
===========
The Excel test tests both text and graphics performance.

CorelDRAW! notes
================
Before running WITS to test CorelDRAW! startup CorelDRAW! and load 
the file C:\WITS\EYE.CDR and watch for an error message about "Bad
or missing fonts."  If you receive this error message simply save
the drawing as is to prevent the error from occuring during the 
WITS test.

******************************************************
IF YOU RECEIVE AN "UNSUPPORTED MS-DOS VERSION" MESSAGE
******************************************************

This error message can be caused by loading FILES high using QEMM-386.
To correct the error remove the LOADHI FILES=x from the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Known problems
==============

Driver timing
-------------
Invoking the driver timing option may cause the background colors and
patterns to change.  The problem will go away when driver timing is
turned off.

Norton Desktop for Windows
--------------------------
WITS may not load if the Norton Desktop for Windows is the default
program manager.  If so, switch back to the standard Windows 3.1 Program
Manager for the duration of the tests.

No Windows printer installed
----------------------------
You must have a printer installed for Windows even if you do not
intend to print out the results.  Certain characteristics of the 
printer are taken into account by WITS so it must be able to access
the printer to get the information.

Small font on the graph labels
------------------------------
This is due to the way the chart display software functions.  It is
not possible for WITS to override the font size it chooses for the chart
labels.  Since this software is provided by a third-party software company
we are not able to control the problem.

General Protection Fault when maximizing results graph
------------------------------------------------------
Some high resolution boards may cause a problem if the Results form is
maximized to the full screen size and then the graph is maximized.  This 
is due to the display driver for the graphics board.


Final Note
==========
As WITS is freeware there is no formal support available.  If you
discover a significant bug or failure mode, or have ideas how to
improve it, please contact us on Compuserve at 71250,2146.
