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From: jmorriso@fs0.ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Another county heard from
Message-ID: <1375@fs1.ee.ubc.ca>
Date: 18 Aug 90 16:36:06 GMT
References: <14679@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Sender: root@fs1.ee.ubc.ca
Reply-To: jmorriso@fs0.ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Organization: Dept. of Electrical Engineering University of B.C.
Lines: 40

The little applications that come with WIndows are SAMPLES. They are modestly
useful little tools to show you a bit of what Windwos can do, but you should
really get specific versions of programs that do what you want them to.

For CDN$100 you get Windows and afew other tools. for CDN$700 you get OS/2
1.2 which has NO useful appplications! (You get some kind of database thing;
big deal!) Not even a lousy GAME.

Windows does have signifigantly more features than DesqView etc. Programs
written for Windows can run in extended memory. In Windows standard and enhanced
mode there is no distinction between DOS/extended memory.

Windows provide DEVICE INDEPENDENCE. You should no longer find 20 different
device drivers for your word-processors, spreadsheets etc all for the same
LaserJet III, along with the wasted hard disk space of all your fonts.

With device independence comes standard ways of doing things. Do you really
think DOS TSRs are the "right" way of doing things? If they work, fine, but
I have seen more headaches caused by myriads of device drivers and tsrs
and shrinking DOS 640k memory. Really, TSRs fighting over interrupts and memory
is not a very appealing way of doing things. But to you, the distinction
might seem academic.

Windows provides ways for programs to multitask, and communicate with each other
Windows has a feature called Dynamic Data Interchange, which I have not really
seen used, but provides enormous potential! I could picture a database program
starting a DDE channel with a communications program, automatically logging
in to a remote system, retrieving data, and then processing it. THIS kind
of power is subtle but appealing to me, since it doesn't require that the data
base actually know how to dial a modem, and start a download.

All the program needs to know is DDE, then you can specify how it all works.
Basically, you can ADD features to a program, without waiting for a lousy
update to roll along! As if Excel or SupreBase would even consider adding
such a specific feature anyway.

Then there is the obvious appeal and ease of use of the interface, which is
superb.

John Paul Morrison