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000259_news@columbia.edu _Fri Jul 9 10:20:07 1999.msg
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From: fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz)
Subject: Re: Any progress on K95 GUI?
Date: 9 Jul 1999 14:16:55 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
Message-ID: <7m508n$7m0$1@newsmaster.cc.columbia.edu>
To: kermit.misc@columbia.edu
In article <u9yagqyolt.fsf@wcl-l.bham.ac.uk>,
Brian McCauley <B.A.McCauley@bham.ac.uk> wrote:
: Now I know the web site says:
: When will the GUI version be available?
:
: As soon as we finish working on it. It is a very big
: job. All previous estimates of availability have proven
: somewhat overoptimistic so we will refrain from setting
: dates until we can do so with confidence.
:
: But this web page also says "As of: 20 February 1997".
: That's almost two and a half years!
:
: I don't want to to be accused of nagging but we've heard
: hardly anything in all that time.
:
: Even if Frank, Jeff and co. don't want to set dates it would
: be good if they could at least confirm or deny that it's
: still being worked on?
:
It is still being worked on. Version 1.1.18 will be available in a
pure-GUI form -- no console window anywhere. But by popular demand
(yes, really) it will also still be available in a console version.
The pure-GUI version of 1.1.18 will have the same user interface as
before: Commands, rather than thousands of dialog boxes. This "Text
GUI" will solve numerous problems caused by bugs and limitations in
the Windows 95/98 (and to some extent, NT) Console environment:
. Clicking the [X] box will work as expected in Windows 95/98
(Win 95/98 Console applications do not receive any notification
when this happens, and so can not clean up and release resources).
. Scroll bars can be used for scrollback in the terminal and
command screens (Console applications can not "see" the
scrollbars).
. Unicode fonts can be used for display of many languages at
once (not possible in Windows 95/98 Console windows).
. Font preferences can be saved (Console applications are not
allowed to "see" the font selection or font list).
. The window or font can be resized by dragging the corner of
the window (Console applications are not notified of this
kind of event).
. The terminal emulator can do true underlining and double-high /
wide characters (not possible in Console applications because
they have no access to the font).
The "full GUI" is taking a long time, because each day something else
comes up that seems to be more important. Some examples include:
. Security, authentication, encryption.
. Script programming improvements too numerous to list here.
. Euro readiness.
. An Internet downloadable time-expiring demo version.
. A "prettier" installation procedure.
. Thousands of small improvements in terminal emulation,
printer support, character sets, file transfer, etc.
The first two have occupied most of our time this past year. Security
is, as you all know, an increasing concern if not an urgent matter,
at most sites, and K95 1.1.18 along with some collateral developments
that we've also been involved with, will offer some relief. Security
is a particularly knotty issue because of USA export law, various other
legal and patent issues, and the rapidly changing political and standards
landscape, requiring participation in a daunting range of activities
that have little to do cranking out code -- code is the easy part!
We have, all this time, committed ourselves to production of a full GUI
version of K95, and we are still committed to it. However, it might help
to understand better exactly why people want it.
Over the past several years, it has seemed to me that two of the main
advantages of K95 over most other products are:
. The script language.
. The availability of compatible Kermit programs (and script
languages) for other platforms such as UNIX, VMS, and DOS.
These features, of course, have nothing to do with GUIs. So, to help
us in our planning, I'd like to know -- in specific, detailed terms --
what exactly do people expect of the GUI? What GUI features will you
use that are not already slated for 1.1.18 and that are not in the
Dialer? How would you rank the desirabality of these features over
actual functional improvements such as:
. IBM 3270 and 5250 emulation
. Tektronix and Sixel graphics terminal emulation
. Other frequently requested emulations
. Windows CE support
. An API allowing control by other Windows apps
. Chinese/Japanese/Korean terminal emulation
. Web scripting
. Built-in FTP client
To start the ball rolling, I think it is apparent that for ease of use, a
simple popup for making connections (and authenticating) is desirable,
similar to what you see on the General page of a Dialer entry.
Beyond that, what?
- Frank