Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!cscnj!paul
From: paul@cscnj.csc.COM (Paul Moody)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Query to Windows developers
Summary: Windows is not Mac
Message-ID: <512@cscnj.csc.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 89 15:43:07 GMT
References: <32506@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Computer Sciences Corp., Piscataway NJ
Lines: 39

In article <32506@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, jay@icsi.berkeley.edu (Jay Weber) writes:
> 1) Can programs start other Windows applications?  It it just using DOS
>    EXEC?

Yes, you can start other winapps, but it is not a dos exec. There is
some windows setup to do first.

> 2) Can Windows display directories as a group of icons?  Can a program
>    cause such a directory to be displayed?

No, but you can buy utilities to display directories this way. I dont
know if any of these talk to other apps.

> 3) Can arbitrary programs be invoked by dragging a file and dropping
>    it into the application (like the "trashcan" idiom)?

No, but once again you can buy utilities to do this. 

> 4) What does the Windows Developer's Kit give you?

The ability to write winapps. Without it you cannot. There are 
libraries that must be included in a windows application exe
that aren't part of the MSC distribution. You also need a 
special linker that only comes with the developers kit.

> 5) In what way, if any, does Windows support multi-tasking?

Windows 2.x performs non-preemptive multi-tasking on windows
applications. That is all the 286 version does. The 386 version
does preemptive multitasking between virtual machines. All of windows
runs in one virtual machine putting winapps back in the same boat as
286 windows.

It sounds like you want windows to look like the MAC, and it most
certainly is not.
-- 
Paul Moody			UUCP: rutgers!cscnj!paul 
Computer Sciences Corporation
# the opinions expressed are entirely imaginary			#