From: dtaylor@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Douglas A Taylor)
Subject: Re: Dumb Questions
Reply-To: doug-taylor+@osu.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 14:28:05 GMT

In article <Pine.3.05.9301212245.A4381-b100000@Ra.MsState.Edu> <pcgeos-list@pandora.sf.ca.us> writes:
>1. What are the possibilities of PCGeos (I'm a little fuzzy on the correct
>terminology) becoming a real operating system, like DOS, OS2, or the Mac

I think the question you're asking is this:  Will I someday be able to run
PC/GEOS on my PC without booting DOS first?  The answer (according to
Brian Dougherty, GeoWorks CEO) is yes -- eventually.  Not in v2.0, but
eventually.

The only DOS system calls that PC/GEOS uses involve the file system
(locating files, deleting files, formatting disks, etc.).  PC/GEOS
handles all other normal functions of a "real operating system" itself
(and much better than DOS does, IMHO).

>2. Can PCGeos fonts be gotten from ftp sites or be converted from fonts
>elsewhere and how? A better question is: can and how can I get more fonts
>for GeoWorks without spending a lot of money (a poor college student, I am)?

There's a whole passle of PC/GEOS fonts in the GEOWORKS directory at
Simtel.  Try ftp-ing to wuarchive.wustl.edu (mirrors/msdos/geoworks
directory) or oak.oakland.edu (pub/msdos/geoworks directory).

>3. What other fonts can be converted to GeoWorks fonts?

Version 1.2 and above include a utility for converting from the URW
font format to PC/GEOS format.  There are commercial font-conversion
utilities you can use (sorry, I can't remember any titles.  Allfonts,
maybe?) to convert from various other formats to one of these.

>4. Has there been any reports from GeoWorks of specific new functions to
>be added to any of the components in 2.0?

As soon as I can find a couple hours I'll update the FAQ to reflect
the latest GEOS 2 info that I've heard on this group.  The current
version of the FAQ has some info on new features.  You can get a copy
of it by anonymous ftp to pit-manager.mit.edu, in the
/pub/usenet/news.answers subdirectory, using the archive name
pcgeos-faq.

>5. .... Is there any wordprocessor that can convert to or
>from GeoWrite files?  

No.  Most word processors, including GeoWrite, can import/export plain
ASCII text, but I don't know of any that handle GeoWrite files.  In
version 2 GeoWrite should have the capability to import/export a
number of different WP formats.  WordPerfect is the only one I've
heard mentioned specifically, but I'm hoping for MS-Word support as
well.

(No, I'm not a MS fan, but the folks who decide on our departmental
standards are.  We use MS Word, Excel, Project, Powerpoint, and
possibly Mail.  We even have a few NT nuts who get very excited when
they talk about how NT will have *multithreading*!  Ooh!  Aah!  But I
digress :-).

>6. ....  I know
>this list is for those who do not have access to the newsgroup.  Are the
>original messages being sent to that newsgroup before this list?  I have
>not been able to find the newsgroup here.

It's not unheard of to see a reply to an article before you see the
original article, even when you're just dealing with Usenet news.
Having a bidirectional gateway to a mailing list just complicates
matters that much more.


-- 
   Doug Taylor                         |   Nothing real can be threatened.
   The Ohio State University           |   Nothing unreal exists.
   doug-taylor+@osu.edu                |            - A Course in Miracles