Speed Under Windows 7

General Help regarding HMG, Compilation, Linking, Samples

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MGOLDFARB
Posts: 71
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:46 am

Speed Under Windows 7

Post by MGOLDFARB »

Hi.

I have noticed for awhile that my applications runs significantly slower under Windows 7 then Windows XP. It was not a real issue until now, that my user has upgraded more of their work stations to Windows 7.

As I was using hmg 3.2 version, I decided to try the latest version 3.4.0. Same speed issue. I then decided to try compiling under 64bit.

When I change the Build to 64bit and compile (in IDE), I get the Build Log error window that says:
Resource compiler -42'windres' is not recognized as an internal or external command

My two questions are:
1. Should I see a significant speed difference with an application on a Windows 7 machine if it is compiled in 64bit?
2. If yes, what am I doing wrong (or what am I missing) in compiling the application as a 64bit application?

Thank you.

Mark
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vagblad
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Re: Speed Under Windows 7

Post by vagblad »

Hi Mark,

To be able to compile in 64 bits you have to do the following:

1) Download the Harbour and MinGW 64-bit libraries from here : site/download/Harbour-64%20and%20MinGW-64.rar
2) After downloading the above you have to copy the HARBOUR-64 and MINGW-64 folders to your HMG installation directory.
3) Inside the same directory you will notice there is the _BuildAllLib64.bat file. Run it and let it compile the libraries.
4) Finally in the HMG IDE from the top menu you have to select: Build--> 64-bits.

The above should do the work.

Now to the other part of your question regarding the speed. I don't know in which part of your program you see the speed problems(screen updating, file functions, or somewhere else).
You will probably get a small overall speed increase if you compile for 64 bits. But unless your program has lots of compute-intensive code like image processing, integer (fixed point) instructions, floating point instructions, vector instructions you won't notice a huge difference.
Another benefit is that you can load larger files into memory and big database files will be searched-indexed faster because of the ability to use large memory for caching.
Overall don't expect miracles by migrating to 64 bits.

I am sure some of the gurus here will have a better insight on the 32/64 bit benefits than mine.
Hope it helps.

Best Regards
Vagelis Prodromidis
Email: vagblad@gmail.com, Skype: vagblad
MGOLDFARB
Posts: 71
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:46 am

Re: Speed Under Windows 7

Post by MGOLDFARB »

Thank you. I will try this and see if there is any significant difference.

Running the EXE locally, and not from the server drive, seems to speed things up significantly. Under XP, it works fine from server drive.
THe problem with running locally is installing updates on all the workstations (which happens on a pretty regular basis).

Mark
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