🚀 go-pugleaf

Apropos the issue of what sort of multitasking operating/windowing system,
GEM-based or otherwise, one would like to see on the new generation of
Atari machines, this week's _Infoworld_, in a highly enthusiastic review of
Simultask for the AT&T 6300 Plus, describes a few essential features:

     "With Simultask, AT&T has pulled off an amazing stunt: This system
runs Unix System V and offers MS-DOS as a task under Unix.  What is amazing
is that the MS-DOS task is as capable, compatible, and speedy as it is.
MS-DOS in Simultask runs MS-DOS programs with the speed and compatibility
of any 6-MHz PC AT compatible.  In one instance, we found Simultask's
MS-DOS more PC compatible than running MS-DOS directly....
     "The AT&T 6300 Plus running Simultask offers an elegant one-box
solution for those wishing to access both Unix and MS-DOS.  You can use
binary information in either environment with ease, and text information is
easily converted from MS-DOS format to Unix and back."

Question: has anyone on the list taken a close look at Simultask? The
review remarks that Simultask runs within an (apparently windowing)
interface/shell called PC 6300 Plus Office that is somewhat slower than
Microsoft Windows and Desqview, and not quite as sophisticated as the AT&T
7300 user interface.  How does this interface compare with the Mac/GEM
style of windowing? Is it a suitable model for a 4-meg multitasking Atari?

On a related topic: is anyone on the list aware of any recent research
reports or studies which exhaustively compare, contrast, and evaluate the
features of currently available windowing systems (X, Xerox, Sun,
Symbolics, Microsoft, Macintosh, GEM, etc.)?

Wayne McGuire
(wayne@oz.ai.mit.edu)