Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!jkt100
From: JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Windows for Amiga?? Maybe!!
Message-ID: <90324.194527JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 90 00:45:27 GMT
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 77

Ok, before you flame me or fall on the floor laughing at the Subject
above, read the story below.  I'm only posting this because I was
very shocked at first and then eventually convinced myself:

It all started when I noticed the cover story on a friend's MacWeek.
It said "MicroSoft ports Windows to Mac."  As I laughed out loud at
the very notion, the friend and another Mac developer both quieted
my humor.  Apparently they both liked the idea.

I was astounded.  These were two established Mac devotees who
were openly embracing the notion of porting a windowing system to
a computer that already had windowing built in at the chip level.

Further discussion revealed the reason:  They're developers.  The
Mac is inherently difficult compared to Windows to program from a
GUI standpoint.  The small company we all work for will spend over
one million dollars in the next few months porting our software from
PC to Mac.  "Much of that expense," they said, "could be alleviated
if we didn't have to rewrite all the graphic procedures.  We could
devote our time to converting the fundamental routines."

This made sense once they explained how much time they spent with
such trivial tasks as updating pointer positions, opening simple
windows, and more.  But then the lightning struck:

"We'd be very surprised if MicroSoft didn't port Windows to every
major platform in the near future.  That way, software for Mac,
PC, and UNIX could easily be ported from one system to another."

Being the Amiga affectionado I am, I felt a bit slighted that it
was not mentioned as one of their "major" platforms.  "So what
about the Amiga?" I asked.  "Well, it may come to a point where
it's Windows or die.  Either MicroSoft (or Commodore if MicroSoft
isn't interested) will need to port Windows to the Amiga if it
is to survive."

I felt very funny about this notion at first, but then the idea
of more portable software really began to sink in.  I had one last
objection though:  "You know, mediocrity thrives on standardization.
What about each computer's special abilities?  Will they be suppressed
in favor of standard methods?"

Well, apparently they both had confidence (although one more than
the other) that Microsoft would leave the hooks available for custom
abilities.  There would be a vast library of calls, not all of which
would be implemented in each version of Windows.  For example, an Amiga
version of Windows could have PointerColor and PointerSize calls
to implement the fact that the Amiga's pointer is a sprite with more
abilties than the graphic pointer on Mac and MS-DOS.  If such calls
were made on another version of Windows, they would simply be ignored
instead of causing problems.  The trick is to get developers to use
the special abilties of the platforms with them instead of just writing
generic code for all platforms.  (yes, I know this would be a "sticky
wicket" as they say...)

All in all, the concept of making code much more easily portable is
enticing enough that I don't think we should throw this idea out without
at least considering it.  There are two major issues to be addressed
also:
1) Trusting Microsoft or whoever does the port to do it right; include
the hooks and calls to enable each machine to strut its stuff.
2) Making sure the port gets done in the first place, assuming Windows
does indeed take off, and sell on the Mac and gets ported to UNIX.
The Amiga being left behind in such a market is a scary thought.

                       Please keep the flames on this one to a minimum;
                         I don't like Bill Gates that much either!!  ;-)

                                                            Kurt
--
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|| Kurt Tappe   (215) 363-9485  || Amigas, Macs, IBM's, C-64's, NeXTs, ||
|| 184 W. Valley Hill Rd.       ||  Apple ]['s....  I use 'em all.     ||
|| Malvern, PA 19355-2214       ||  (and in that order too!   ;-)      ||
||  jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu         --------------------------------------||
||  jkt100@psuvm.bitnet  jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1  QLink: KurtTappe ||
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------