🚀 go-pugleaf

Ari.Huttunen@hut.fi (Ari Juhani Huttunen) writes:

>In article <1991May8.190718.12134@watson.ibm.com> larrys@watson.ibm.com (Larry Salomon, Jr.) writes:

>>(Sigh) This is getting ridiculous now.  So you think that NT will provide
>>this???  NO!!!  NT is simply a way of mapping the Windows, OS/2, VMS, and
>>Dos APIs to a common set of kernal functions.  THAT'S IT!  Your file
>>formats will still be as incompatible, etc..

>Why not just implement Windows and OS/2 on top of Mach? A(n almost) ready
>kernel that I've heard is also pretty fast.
>--
>Ari Huttunen			To Tuva or nothing!
>phone: 90-7285944			<Richard Feynman>


Correct me if I am wrong (a request not worth making? :-> ), Windows is
to PM as DOS is to OS/2. Windows is to NextStep as DOS is to Mach. Mach
is a Unix compatible (shaky ground?) "operating system", supporting
multi-user, multi-tasking, etc. access to a computing platform. NextStep
is an object oriented "user interface" providing graphical access to
an operating system.

DOS, OS/2, and Mach each entail unique API's (application programming
interfaces). Windows, PM, and NextStep entail their own unique API's,
one step removed from the operating system's API. In theory, one could
(will) insert an API transliterator between PM and a native Windows
3.0 application (thus allowing Win 3.0 app's run under PM without any
changes or recompiles). Likewise this might be done with Mach or NextStep
using a product called SoftPC. It run's DOS app's on Mach machines running
a DOS emulator/API transliterator.
 
With respect to file formats: Independant of the operating system vendors
and the graphical interface vendors I suspect each application vendor will
evaluate the cost/benefit ratio of providing file compatibility between
systems (e.g. MS Excel on the Mac and PC, WordPerfect on the Mac, PC and NeXT,
etc.). The file systems will be different on each platform but the file
formats may in fact be compatible (e.g. EPS files on any system, TIFF files
on any system). Lotus enables one to import *.wks and *.wk1 files into
Improv on the Next. However, Improv is object oriented and enables one
to perform functions not downwardly compatible with 123. Until Improv is
release for  OS/2 and Windows one is restricted to bringing 123 files in
but not exporting Improv's native files to other systems.
 
Granted, there are always imperfections and some inconveniences. The user
must make their own cost/benefit analysis in order to determine if it is
worth having a heterogenous computing environment, and take what compatibilit
they can get.

barry

ps
 
Larry - never say never and don't let enthusiasm turn into dogmatism...

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