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From: barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Notebook computers
Message-ID: <1089@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 14 Feb 91 05:38:31 GMT
Sender: news@MATH.UCLA.EDU
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Organization: UCLA Dept. of Math, UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research
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Check out the latest BYTE (the notebook computer issue) 
article on GO corp's PenPoint operating system, which is an
OS + GUI meant to manage handrwritten input text on notebook/tablet
computers. It would
be great if NeXT developed a notebook computer for this OS.

The PenPoint OS sounds pretty fancy: kernel + shell written
in C, object oriented structure, multitasking (virtual mem?),
small, fast (enough for realtime hand written entry---3 characters
per second) and all tailored to the special needs of the
notebook + handwritten entry paradigm.

A part of the shell is a handwritten character recognition 
filter and a spelling checker/correcter. They say the shell correctly
translates 4 out of 5 handwritten words on the first try, and most others
with minor quick corrections. You use various proof readers sybmols
to edit your input quickly, plus a few other pen strokes to control
scrolling, launching apps, etc. (This is all customizable, apparently).

The reason I bring this up is that GO licenses the Penpoint
OS to hardware vendors, who can then put it on their platform.
So far, IBM has signed on. It would be great if NeXT would too.
I would much rather see a NeXT notebook with the PenPoint OS
than a simple NeXT portable.

Now, you might say---hey, I want the usual NeXT
enviroment (unix + NextStep) on my NeXT notebook!
But thats wrong thinking---thats like saying you want 
the NeXT environment running on the modems you use.
The notebook is really more like a peripheral 
(that is portable and does Analog->ASCII conversion on text)
device than a primary computer: its main purpose is to collect analog notes
(from classes, lectures, meetings, ect) and convert them into
ASCII test for ease of storage and manipulation back on the 
office computer. With such vastly different aims, it doesn't really
need a full NeXTStep, for instance, and benefits from a more 
use-specific OS. In short, these tablets are
not meant to be portable computers---they inhabit a different niche
that can be filled more economically. They are more like  portable
A/D converter peripherals, and as such should be tailored to their 
target application (note gathering).

Anyway, I hope NeXT gets into something like this---that would
be really cool (not to mention useful---the academic's dream
come true: a way to manage all those lecture notes!).

--
Barry Merriman
UCLA Dept. of Math
UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research
barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)