Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!wsu-cs!egrunix!nucleus!dar
From: dar@nucleus.mi.org (Dario Alcocer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Desqview vs Windows?
Summary: Windows API mapped to PM now...
Message-ID: <5518@nucleus.mi.org>
Date: 16 Jan 90 02:34:51 GMT
References: <1640035@hpspcoi.HP.COM> <640@qvax2.UUCP> <4107@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <6138@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Organization: The Nucleus Public Access Unix, Clarkston, MI
Lines: 34

In article <6138@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>, caprio@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Caprio) writes:
> >
> >From a programmer's standpoint, Windows is definitely the way to go because
> >of its close relationship to the OS/2 Presentation Manager.  Write a
> >program for one environment, and you've virtually written a program for the
> >other.
> >
>   As I understand it, programming for Windows and PM, turned out to be
> far more different than MS had promised.  None of the functions calls are
> the same, etc.  It will apparently be a major hassle to bring a program
> over to PM after designing it for Windows :-(

From what I've heard, you're right about a Windows-to-PM port not being so
easy as Microsoft first expected.  Maybe because of this, Micrographx has
been working on something to make it easier; According to Charles Petzold:

	"Moreover, Micrographx (the creators of several good Windows
	 programs) has benn working on a product called Mirrors that will
	 help Windows programmers convert their programs to the Presentation
	 Manager.  It involves recompiling the Windows program, using and
	 OS/2 dynamic link library to convert the Windows function calls
	 to PM function calls."

	-- Charles Petzold, "Windows and PM: Friendly Companions or 
	   Deadly Competitors", PC Magazine, Dec. 12, 1989, vol. 8 no. 21

Also, this was mentioned in an article in Info World ("Microsoft Tells
Developers of Plan To Let Windows Apps Run Under PM", Info World, v. 12,
n. 1), and I guess MS and Micrographx are working on an implementation
in an upcoming release of OS/2.
-- 
-- Dario Alcocer (San Diego, CA)
INTERNET: dar@nucleus.mi.org
voice: 619-450-1667