Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!purdue!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!killer!usl!pcb
From: pcb@usl.usl.edu (Peter C. Bahrs)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: MS Windows
Keywords: object-oriented, bugs
Message-ID: <445@usl.usl.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 88 21:06:14 GMT
Organization: CACS, Lafayette, LA, USA
Lines: 39

Well, I just returned from the OOPSLA 88 Conference in San Diego.  I heard
a lot about MS Windows, C, and C++, et.al.

1) Zortech is not releasing and hooks into MS Windows with its C++ compiler.

2) Glockenspeil (excuse spelling) has ported AT&T's C++ to the DOS environment.
They are associated with a company that produced CommonView, which is
a class library of MS Windows abstractions.  An example they had was a
12 line program to create a pen drawing window. Pretty neat.
  However, rumor is (with a shhhh!) that the 'Big M...' will soon be 
marketing this product.

3) Consider what happens in MS Windows when moving segments (i.e. pointers
are changed, memory compacted, etc).  If your code is developed correctly
everything is fine.
   So how are you doing IO???  Note that all of the C libraries are
C libraries.  So if you call a stdio function, like scanf or printf and
windows decides to move these routines, what happens.  Well apparently
some of these routines use internall buffers and the pointers do not
get updated like MS Windows pointers and ker-blang, fatal error of
some kind.  This is the information that I got from a couple of great
people from MS while eating salmon and listening to Mitchell Kapor talk.
This 'syndrome' seems to occur with any C routine that may have pointers and
especially when memory is low..

4) Win 2.0 is more streamlined and fine tuned thus it appears to perform
faster than Win 386.  AND, win386 is still non-premptive...no time slice
scheduling.

5) Let me just reiterate how nice it is to program in C++ in the
windows environment, I Must Say.

6) It appears that a port from a MS Windows environment to Presentation
Manager will be about 60% straightforward and about 40% re-thinking/re-coding!

7) C++ and MS Windows will still run under CodeView!

Thats all for now,
Comments: pcb@usl.usl.edu       csnet