Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!microsoft!garye
From: garye@microsoft.UUCP (Gary ERICSON)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: GO OS vs. Microsoft Pen Windows
Keywords: go microsoft stylus notebook windows
Message-ID: <71335@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 91 22:53:50 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 53

Just to get off the "let's split the newsgroup" track, and to offer a
non-HP48 discussion, I'm curious how people feel about the two 
contending approaches to the notebook-computer-with-stylus-interface 
that have arisen.

The first one out is the one from Go Corp. which uses a new operating
system that was specifically designed to exploit the stylus interface and
provide software with a stylus-oriented platform to work from.  I've heard
comments that this is a real nice operating system even without the stylus
features, and that the handwriting recognition is not bad.

The other one coming down the road is Microsoft's Pen Windows that's been
mentioned in the press.  The idea here is to provide hooks in Windows that 
allows standard Windows (and even non-Windows) programs to get input from 
the stylus without having to change the code to be stylus-aware.  Of course,
you will be able to change your code to make better use of the stylus if 
you want.

The claimed advantage of each is the disadvantage of the other and these
are obvious: Go says that their system is better for good stylus operation 
because it is specifically designed for it, but Pen Windows is an attempt
to twist Windows into something it wasn't designed to be.  Microsoft says
that their system is better because it immediately has tons of software
that will work with it, while Go's system has none.  Go says their system
will be easy to write for, Microsoft says users can write stylus-specific
code if they want that will be just as good as Go's.  And so forth.

Since Pen Windows will allow a user to write stylus-specific software
(instead of using the generic stylus interface layer provided), software
will eventually emerge that is more stylus-oriented than your basic Windows
application.  But, since Pen Windows isn't out yet, there is one comparison
nobody can make yet, and that is between a program written specifically
for Go's OS and one written specifically for Pen Windows.  Which one will
have the better stylus interaction (i.e., successfully using gestures and
symbols, and navigating with the stylus)?  And how will the handwriting
recognition compare?


So how do you feel about this?  A lot of us have thought about having a
Dynabook-type notebook computer with stylus interface - which would you
rather have: a system custom-built for the stylus but with sparse 
applications in a new environment, or lots of applications in a familiar
environment (Windows) but each with possibly limited stylus functionality?


Disclaimer: I'm not involved in Pen Windows development, and it's not my
	    purpose to pass on any discussion to that group, nor have I
	    been asked to do so.  I'm just an innocent bystander who 
	    happens to work here and who's sincerely interested in what 
	    this audience thinks.


Gary Ericson - Microsoft - Work Group Apps