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From: barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: more on pen-based computers
Message-ID: <1155@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 1 Mar 91 05:22:12 GMT
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Organization: UCLA Dept. of Math, UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research
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Just to continue beating a partially dead horse (which happens
to be catching on fire, though):

The cover story on the latest "PC Magazine" (or is it "PC Journal"?)
is about GO Corps. pen-based (i.e. handwritten input) operating
system, and they also have a lengthy note MicroSoft's attempt,
"PenWindows" (which will allow a handwritten interface to Windows 3.0,
in which the pen plays the dual role of the mouse and the cursor).

And the Feb 25 InfoWorld has a page 3 blurb on PenWindows as well.

There is much interest in putting GO's OS on notebook platforms,
but the power of MicroSoft is also fostering an enormous interest
in PenWindows.

The upshot is; A large group of hardware makers (Toshiba, Sharp,
NEC, Grid, Canon, etc) and software developers are going to 
License PenWindows, and MicroSoft claims the first PenWindow's
based apps and platforms will be shipping in < 1.5 years (1992).
Developer kits will be available shortly (and already are for GO's PenPoint 
OS.)

I think the pen-based paradigm is really going to be taking off over
the next couple years, and the massive interest (as well as push from
MicroSoft) would seem to support this. I hope NeXT has some sort
of plans in this direction. (Could we stand MicroSoft having
a superior user interface to NeXT! :-)

I also heard a rumor that a few top NeXT people (who followed
Steve from Apple) have gone on to work at GO---another sign 
that this is the most exciting direction in personal computing now.

Also, I'd just like to plug once more the idea of a pen based
tablet as a "mobile peripheral" for your main computer, rather than
just a pen-based laptop that is big, clunky and _expensive_.

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