Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!aplcomm!capd.jhuapl.edu!waltrip From: waltrip@capd.jhuapl.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Notebook computers Message-ID: <1991Feb19.185433.1@capd.jhuapl.edu> Date: 19 Feb 91 23:54:33 GMT References: <1089@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> <1991Feb14.154041.1@capd.jhuapl.edu> Sender: news@aplcomm.JHUAPL.EDU Distribution: na Organization: CAPVAX, JHU/APL Lines: 42 In article , gessel@ilium.cs.swarthmore.edu (Daniel Mark Gessel) writes: [...material deleted...] > I would prefer to see NeXTStep or some variation if I'm going to buy > a portable from NeXT. NeXTStep would be just dandy on a portable, with > handwriting recognition. I don't think it'd be hard to put a > handwriting recognizer in that would convert letters to keystrokes > before they went to the window server to be dispatched to > applications. (Assuming the recognizing algorithms were already known). That'd be great if it turns out to be true...and if it turns out to be easy to adapt Mach and Display PostScript, etc., to a notebook computer. But GO has already done the work and, unless the effort to duplicate what they've done is trivial, I would regard it as a diversion of resources that would probably be better spent on continuing development in the directions NeXT has already committed to. In particular, I regard speech recognition as important to desktop computers as handwriting recognition is to notebook computers. And NeXTstep is hardly a finished product...and neither is Mach (I would still like to see NeXT adopt OSF's OS simply because it would be easier to port the NeXTstep environment to a larger number of platforms). In short, NeXT already has a full table. I suspect they would be better off (if they can afford the capital) to give someone else their requirements for a (black:^) notebook computer with a SCSI interface capable of acting as a hand drawing and writing peripheral to a cube or slab and of producing drawing and writing objects that are compatible with definitions developed for NeXTstep and of processing text and graphic objects produced by NeXTstep. This someone else could produce the notebook computer that NeXT would market (though marketing is still not one of their strengths either). My essential point is: no idea is a good one if it diverts or dilutes NeXT's efforts from finishing what they've already started. Internet: Opinions expressed are my own.