From: rafetmad@cheshire.oxy.edu (David R. Giller)
Subject: Re: All GUIs are not alike
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 USA.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 01:38:18 GMT

In article <g44tjka@rpi.edu> johnsd2@rpi.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr9.224352.367@news.nd.edu>, rcook@grumpy.helios.nd.edu (robert cook) writes:
>|> [deletia- is OS/2 more likte Windows or MacOS?]
>|> 
>|> The WorkPlace Shell is a better GUI than both the Mac and Windows.
>
>Is the WorkPlace Shell a GUI or a file manager?

It is interesting that this seems to be changing a bit in OS/2 2.0.

My view of things:

Presentation Manager (PM) is the Window Manager, and GUI.  It provides the 
drawing and Window management, etc.

The System Object Model (SOM) is the new, internal, Object-Oriented programming
model for OS/2 2.0.  It is the mechanism that supports drag-and-drop, etc.
It is an information sharing interface, like DDE and OLE, but it goes beyond,
becuase it is also a real object-oriented programming interface, and it
is built into the OS instead of a message protocol.

The Workplace Shell (WPS) is just that: a shell.  It includes the functionality
of a (bleach) program manager, file manager, etc.  It uses SOM and PM.

>|> It is a lot like the Macintosh, but there are no menu bars on the desktop,
>|> whenever you press the right mouse button, a menu appears under it.
>
>Does it have Menu Bars in the windows? I thot it did... Of course this
>does not exclude popup menus, but if you are talking about a general
>GUI you kinda have to include the way Apps work too.

Some windows do, some don't.  Those programs that use CUA '91 have only
a system menu, which has some of the familiar system-like functions that
you see on every menu bar.  You get a menu by clicking the right button
in the window or on an object.

The programs that are written to the older CUA specification (CUA 88?)
look just like old Windows and OS/2 programs, except that everything uses the
new 3-d menus.

Older Windows programs look just like they did under Windows.

>|> Like the Macintosh, you copy and move files by dragging a file from one
>|> place to another.  WPS extends this to all objects though.  In order to 
>|> print something, you can drag a file from its folder to the printer ICON
>|> on the desktop:
>
>I saw a beta of OS/2 2.0 and it did not look like this. I did have the
>printer business, but the directory structure was represented as a tree
>rather than as nested 'folders' (or other objects- MacOS also has
>suitcases, and OS/2 can name these things whatever it likes).
>That is, folders (/directories) seemed to be handled differently from other
>things in the beta I say (late fall sometime)

You have several 'views' of any object.  The views of folders and drives
can be either icon, tree, or details.

>Perhaps the IBM dude just wanted to show off the tree display or something.

I think so.

>I've also heard about some scheme for changing the colors of windows and
>things of that sort which sounded funny- drag the colors to the thing
>to be changed, or somesuch thing? Is that part of this? If so, how far
>does it extend? (what else can you do that way)?

Each object can have its own color scheme.  You don't have to have the
same color scheme throughout the system.  And yes, you edit a color
scheme, and you have a palette of them.  You drag them to the object
to be colored.  To change all objects to the same scheme, you alt-drag
to something.  The same is true of fonts.  I have all my title bars
in Times New Roman PS.

-Dave
-- 
David Giller, Box 134 | Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light
Occidental College    | bulb?  A: Three.  One to replace the bulb, and two to
1600 Campus Road      | fend off all the Californians trying to share the
Los Angeles, CA 90041 | experience. ---------------------------rafetmad@oxy.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc