CDSHARE.EXE is the DOS device driver that gets installed in your CONFIG.SYS file and tricks MSCDEX into thinking a new CD-ROM drive is attached. Requests that are passed from MSCDEX to CDSHARE are converted into file I/O requests that are in turn handed off to MS-DOS. Using MS-DOS rather than a proprietary protocol assures network OS (NOS) independence, at the cost of some added complexity.
This architecture means that MS-DOS is being asked to perform both a CD-ROM file I/O and a network file I/O, essentially simultaneously. But MS-DOS frees its critical sections when it completes a network I/O request. CDSHARE has to extend the critical section to protect MS-DOS until the CD-ROM file I/O is over as well, especially if Windows is
running.
This issue will go away once a Windows 95 version of CD-QuickShare is available. Stac did not provide a shipping date for that release.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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You Can Fool MSCDEX
