From: support@qdeck.com (Technical Support)
Subject: Re: DVX vs. HCL Exceed
Organization: Quarterdeck Office Systems, Santa Monica CA
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 16:41:12 GMT

In article <17NOV92.10165748@wl.aecl.ca> harrisp@wl.aecl.ca writes:
>Our company pushes HCL eXceed as the software of choice for interfacing
>between PC's and systems run X-windows software. What are the advantages
>and disadvantages of using DV/X versus HCL eXceed? Has anyone out there
>done a thorough comparison? In specific, our companies internal review
>suggests:
>
>"Quarterdeck's DESQview/X provides an economic solution for X11 window
>emulation on personal computers. Unfortunately, this software does not
>support MS-window and DECNET/LAT, and does not support properly any other
>graphics mode except VGA 640x480, hence we did not evaluate this product."
>
>Is this true? Surely DV/X must do some things that HCL eXceed doesn't, or
>what is the big deal about DV/X?

The review is incorrect. DVX does support MS-Windows in standard mode, both
full-screen and in an X-window window. As to graphics modes, I'm currently
running 1024x768x256 with no problems.

What I'm guessing happened is that your reviewer ran into configuration
problems during the install, and bailed, rather than call our tech support.
No biggie. Let me give you a synopsis of what DVX can do...

DVX is actually three different parts that work together. It has a X11R4
compliant X-server that it uses as a display mechanism, and so can display
X-clients from any machine it's networked to on screen alongside your
dos and windows applications. It has a dos client layer, that translates
the output from dos text-mode applications and Microsoft windows standard
mode to X-protocol on-the-fly, which can then be displayed to DVX's local
X-server or to any X-server on the network. And finally, it has a multitasking
extension to dos, that allows you to run multiple dos applications and
windows concurrently, so you could print while you download while you
edit your email.

What this all means is that with DVX, your DOS and windows applications
become display-independant. You can sit at your 386 and use windows, xterms
from unix boxes, local and remote X-clients, and your dos applications
concurrently in a windowed environment. You could then move to a workstation
somewhere else, and use the exact same mix of applications.

We hava a document here at Quarterdeck called our "Technical Perspective".
It has details on what DVX does, and how it does it, and how it relates
to X in general. It is available on request from us; just call our
Technical support line and request it, or email me your real-world
mailing address to support@qdeck.com, and I'll drop a copy in the mail.
It'll answer a lot of questions you didn't even know you had :-)

>Sorry if some of these questions show off my ignorance too clearly! However,
>I've always thought quite highly of Quarterdeck products, I've got DV/X
>on order, and figure I should get some info to defend myself should someone
>ask why I purchased it rather than the "recommended" product.

No problem. If you (or anyone) has questions, or need clarification of
something, feel free to drop us a line...

-- 
Tom Bortels - Quarterdeck Office Systems - Internet Support 
    For questions or Technical Support, write to support@qdeck.com

Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc