From: xtifr@netcom.com (Chris Waters)
Subject: Re: OS/2 VS NT! The Future War Looms...
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 19:25:51 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In <1992Sep15.170831.1755@fcom.cc.utah.edu> brian@jaguar.cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill) writes:

>>>(I mean DESQview has almost no applications available.)
>>
>>Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!  ROFL!!!  Now that's good!!  That's really good!!  At
>...
>>better have been a joke.  It must have been a joke.  Surely nobody would
>>make such a statement seriously.  Would they?  Yeah, it must have been a
>...
>>enough to make a statement like that seriously.  I hope.)  :-)

>I don't get the joke.  Surely you're not counting DOS apps as DESQview
>ones?  If you are then I hope you enjoy spending you life with 640K.
>What is the point in having an advanced OS if you spend your life
>running DOS apps on it?

Nah, of course not.  When I mention using a DOS MULTITASKER, of course I
don't plan to run DOS apps.  I'm planning to run Apple II apps.  sheesh!

Oh, and just FYI, Quarterdeck is partly responsible for the EMS and VCPI
specifications, and QEMM (which is part of DESQview) supports XMS and
DPMI as well.  I haven't been limited to 640k under DOS for years.  In
fact, Quarterdeck has just released a free X-lib package for use with
DV/X and DJGPP (the 32-bit DOS version of GCC).

Like I say, the people in my office have been remarkably unimpressed
with OS/2 so far.  And they're not waiting for the even-less-compatible-
than-OS/2's-somewhat-limited-compatibility NT either.

>>OS/2 already has professional development environmentS.  It also has a

>Really which ones?  Workset/2 doesn't count.. it's missing too many things
>and MSC 6 is nearly as bad and is no longer supported.

Ah, well, I guess I'm not a professional then, since I'm happily using
both those packages.  Blow it out your ear.  I'm sorry this stuff
doesn't meet your high-falutin' academic standards, but I'll assure you
that *in the trenches*, where the *real* professionals work, it's
considered perfectly adequate.

>>>Judging from a raising of hands at the NT developers conference at least
>>>1,000 of the 4,600 attending use Borland for Windows development.
>>
>>Which leaves 3,600 who *aren't* using Borland.  Probably the great
>>majority of those are using MSC, which means that they've been working
>>in C, not C++.  Which means that they don't have to wait for anything. 
>>Going from MSC to Watcom or C Set/2 is nowhere near as big a deal as
>>going from C to C++.

>Microsoft has C++.  You've not seen MSC 7.0 yet?

I've seen it.  It's been out for a *few months* you really think that
all the people who have been using MSC for years have already rewritten
all their code in C++???  If so, I have a nice bridge I'd like to offer
you.

>>So far, I have yet to hear of *any* major vendor announce that they
>>can't develop for OS/2 because C++ isn't available yet.

>Well I don't know what you mean by "major" but you should read the
>OS/2 programmers group... people definitely have been held up
>by the lack of C++.

Yeah, I read comp.os.os2.programmers.  Can't say I've seen a *lot* of
people complaining.  I certainly haven't seen anyone from any
major.vendor.com sites.

>>Excuse me.  There is no such thing as a "pre-beta."

>Rest of message deleted... if you cannot comprehend "pre-beta" then
>there is probably no point in discussing things with you.

Certainly I can comprehend pre-beta.  Translations:

1.  Alpha
2.  Microsoft marketing BS.

The former was obviously not intended (though you deleted the context). 
The latter is sheer stupidity, and pretty pointless stupidity at that.

Note: this has no bearing on my opinion of NT (which I'm reserving
judgement on).  In fact, I've been a big MS fan for years, and I fully
expect NT to be an excellent system.  It *does*, however, have a bearing
on my opinion of some of the fans of NT, who buy into MS's silly attempt
to redefine standard industry terms.

-- 
Chris Waters    | the insane don't | NOBODY for President!
xtifr@netcom.COM| need disclaimers | Because Nobody's perfect!!