From: zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson)
Subject: Re: Mac multitasking?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:29:21 GMT

In article <wjj2cvn@rpi.edu> johnsd2@jec330.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>In article 2257@athena.mit.edu, zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson) writes:
>>>
>>>Macs offer you solutions, now. To a lot of problems. NeXT may do so one
>>>day, if they ever get accepted.
>>>
>>>But NeXT offer you a very nifty, internally clean os. It is just not enough,
>>>tho.
>>
>>NeXT offers solutions just as well as Mac does.
>
>Oh?
>
>Incidentally, what CAD software has it got? Byte was not able to find any
>for its (rather odd) CAD/DTP tests. a couple of months ago.

The only existing package is called OpenCAD (2D and 3D).  Don't know the name
of the company, but read comp.sys.next.software and it will probably be
talked about in there.  By the way, Byte was not very fair to NeXT in its
last computer comparison.  It was comparing the lowest end NeXT with the 
minimum memory configuration to machines with much greater hardware
configurations.  I don't trust what Byte says myself.  If you want a REAL
review of NeXT, get the Dec. 7 edition of InfoWorld.  This review does the
NeXT justice, and you may be able to learn some things from it.  8-)

>
>>  I am trying
>>to get rid of the stigma that NeXT has no software available for it.. There
>>is plenty of software at very good prices (educational users always get
>>discounts).  If you don't believe me, call 1-800-848-NeXT and tell them
>>you want the software and peripherals guide.
>
>I know it has software. It just has relatively little, and many of
>the packages are nonstandard. They may be excellent but often mere
>nonstandardness can kill a package. (unforunately); for many
>companies need to stick with their standard stuff for interconnectivity
>reasons. (or at least, that's the best excuse I've heard yet. :) )

NeXT adheres to most if not all standards.  For instance, all graphics adhere
to postscript (.ps), encapsulated post script (.eps) or tagg-file image 
format (TIFF).  When you save a graphics file, you can print it out on
a Mac using a Mac laser printer.  Also, NeXT's Adobe Illustrator, Frame Maker,
Word Perfect, and Lotus Improv offer full compatability between platforms.
Concurrence (the presentation program) is writing filters that will allow
Power Point presentations to be read in and edited on the NeXT.  A company
has written a Mac emulator that runs 19 Mac programs perfectly (among these
are MSWord5.0, Excel, Quicken, Carmen SanDiego just to name the few that
I can remember).  NeXT's floppy drive is able to read and write in both
DOS and Macintosh formats if the user is running the current version of the
operating system (3.0).  Also, NeXT understands Apple Talk, and can be 
networked to a Mac cluster.  The Mac's think the NeXT is another Mac.  Full
file compatibility is accomplished while transfering data through AppleTalk.
NeXT's can be seemlessly hooked into Novell networks (IBM).  In addition,
Sybase and Oracle databases are supported by the NeXT DataBase kit.  Hooking
into one of these data servers is as easy as 1-2-3. Of course, networking to
other UNIX systems is standard, as NeXT adheres to Berkely 4.3BSD Unix.  It
runs X-Windows X11R5 with Motif 1.3.  All X programs will run under Xwindows.
There are currently three commercial Xwindows packages, and two public domain
packages. Back to the software,
there is talk that a future page layout program (there are already three
released for the NeXT) will be able to import Quark-X-Press files.  But this
is vaporware at the moment.  Did I answer your question?  I am sure there
are more examples I can give, give me a scenario, and I will try to see
I can answer you.


>
>And it also gives you a very nifty GUI on top of a slightly-
>incompatible (From what I've heard anyway) Unix base. But the GUI
>isn't all that nifty- it has some nice details, and some nice
>internals, and better program-communication that other OSes but
>beyond that.. ?

Beyond that WHAT?  It's time you start supporting your foundation-less
statments with examples.  Why in the world is the NeXT GUI "not all that
nifty"?  What improvements do you see that it needs?


>It doesn't quite seem like enough to me to counterbalance the software
>problem, the lack of low-end machines, the general jerkyness of the
>interface (perhaps the machines Ive tried have all had low RAM, but
>they all seemed that jerky to me), the prodigious storage space
>requirents and all that.

The interface should not be jerky at all.  AT ALL.  I hope you were not
using the 68030 based machines.  The 33MhZ 68040 machines offer smooth
graphics under all conditions.  The lack of low end machines will persist.
NeXT will not relases a low end machine due to the complexity of the OS.  They
GOT RID of the 030 systems because they were too slow.  Yes, the storage
space requirements are high.  You need a 200MB HD if you are going to get a 
NeXT.  But that is OK because they come standard with a 250MB drive.  You will
most likely see more high end machines being released, with the current 
machines being lowered in price (my speculation).  The high end machines
will be RISC based, and offer 32bit hardware color, real time image
and movie compression, and multi-processing capability.  Since Mach is
a multi-processing environment, the user will be able to plug in CPU chips
in parallel, much like extra RAM is added to machines nowadays.  You will
most likely be able to add as many processors as you want to get up to your
desired speed (to within certain limits, that no one will know until NeXT
releases this "MEGA MACHINE" sometime NeXT year).  You can catch some of
this hardware/software speculation by reading comp.sys.next.advocacy.

Eric