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From: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Windows-the interface that may never happen...
Message-ID: <1990Jun7.165841.21101@sj.ate.slb.com>
Date: 7 Jun 90 16:58:41 GMT
References: <4ad6ea11.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> <1990Jun6.153908.14746@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Schlumberger Technologies, San Jose, CA.
Lines: 61

In article <1990Jun6.153908.14746@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
>In article <4ad6ea11.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson) writes:
>>
>>From: doerschu@rex.cs.tulane.edu (David Doerschuk)
>>
>>>>          Until MicroSoft offers libraries for the masses, nothing will
>>>>change.  Currently, if I want to develop software, I have to spend
>>>>hundreds.  I bought Quick C  1.01 for $52 new, the upgrade for $45, why
>>>>not libraries for windows at $80?
>>>
>>>I couldn't agree more.  MS wants an absurd amount of money for the
>>>libraries. 
>>
>>  Is this the reason why products written for Windows seem to 
>>  be so expensive?  
>>
>No.
>
>It could be that the sellers just think "Oh Oh Windows adds so much value
>to my product I'll charge more".
>
>Or it could be that Windows programs are more expensive to develop.
>I have written some. They are indeed more expensive.
>
>First you have to learn how Windows works. Its not straightforward.
>Even for people who have programmed the Mac. I takes months. 
>
>Second, you have to program for Windows in **UNHOSTED** C. That is,
>the Windows envrionment is and unhosted C environment. A large fraction 
>of standard C language libray functions DON'T WORK: scanf, printf,
>any form of stdio, puts, putc, malloc, free, the list goes on and on.
>
>And the ways you have to do the equivalent in Windows are messy. You 
>(if you follow the rules) HAVE to use mixed model programming
>(unless you program is small enough to be medium model). The pointers
>you get from Windows equivalent of malloc may BECOME INVALID without
>your doing anything. It's more complicated than a simple change of
>char * to char **. 
>
>Windows graphics calls are fairly simple. But it takes a bit of work
>to get them all just exactly in the right order.
>
>And so on. 
>

For a graphics environment, Windows is not much different than writing for
Sunview or X. You need to change your thinking for writing applications for
just about ANY windowing environment. If you have ever programmed in Sunview,
Windows seems easy.

I have seen a fair amount of shareware Windows applications including games,
terminal emulators, desktop enhancers, etc. I am currently working on a few
of my own.

I do it because I like programming, it is a hobby, not to make lots of money.


Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
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