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From: spolsky-joel@cs.yale.edu (Joel Spolsky)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: WHO, WHAT, WHERE REGARDING: WINDOWS 3.0
Message-ID: <26055@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 8 Sep 90 15:10:47 GMT
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In article <8639@orca.wv.tek.com> mhorne%hss.pdx.com@uunet.uu.net writes:
>	- Is there a decent (commercial) developers package available for
>	  Windows 3.0?  If so, where can I obtain it and how much is it?

The Microsoft Software Development Kit is pretty much a must; it is
$500 list (about $350 from mail order shops). Make sure you get
version 3.0! You will also need Microsoft C. It IS possible to use
other C compilers by begging Microsoft for their object file
compatability disk. This does not include Turbo C. 

>	- How well does Windows 3.0 perform on, say, a 16 MHz 386?  I'm
>	  mainly concerned about graphics performance for things like
>	  graphing, bitmaps, etc.

Performance is fine. It will never be as fast as programs that just
grab the video screen and do low-level writes, but for most uses
performance is just fine. On my 386SX screen writes are very fast, not
even sluggish at all. On a 286 stuff is slightly sluggish but very
useable.

>	- What is the maximum amount of memory a Windows 3.0 application
>	  can allocate from the system?  My application will typically be
>	  memory hungry.

On a 386, about 16 Megabytes, if you have the hard disk space
available. On a 286, you are limited to RAM. On an 8088, about 5K. :-)

>	- I'm looking for a *good* book on programming under Windows 3.0.
>	  Is there a bible out yet?  If not, what's the next best thing?

The manuals that come with the SDK are the best source out so far. You
can buy all the manuals for the SDK at any bookstore that carries
Microsoft Press books. Real Soon Now Microsoft Press will also have
the 3.0 version of Petzold's "Programming Windows" which was the
classic Win/286 windows bible; this promises to be a good buy,
especially since Petzold has access to inside info about undocumented
but cool functions...

Joel Spolsky
spolsky@cs.yale.edu                                        Talk Hard.