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1993-10-18
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The following is another example of the visions presently employed to
envision the future networks, operating systems, and document - application
relationships. Exciting news, innovative design, limits and pitfalls.
Perhaps just another reminder of how far we still are from "real"
Object-oriented Operating Systems Software. All hilighting is mine.
" TidBITS#185/19-Jul-93
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
*APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- 71520.72@compuserve.com
Makers of hard drives, tape drives, memory, and accessories. For APS price lists, email: aps-prices@tidbits.com
Copyright 1990-1993 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue. Automated
info: <info@tidbits.com>. Comments: <ace@tidbits.com>
PC Expo Comments ---------------- by Bill Seitz --seitz@mindvox.phantom.com
I attended PC-Expo in New York earlier this month on its first morning,
since Iwanted to hear Chairman Bill's oratory. Am I the only one who finds
it embarrassing that kick-off presentations for major industry conventions
are used for mere PR pimping? No grand visions, just "here's why my company
is better than everyone else's company." Gates is hardly unique in this
regard - it's a tedious invariant. Still, Bill did (inadvertently) make
some interesting comments. To wit:
* Applications push the operating system to improve. This has certainly
been the Microsoft synergy game, and is a clear admission that there is
serious interaction between the two sides of the Microsoft empire. It's
also just one approach. Consider Apple's strategy that the OS pushes the
hardware; this justifies Apple's unwillingness to license the MacOS to
other hardware platforms, since it would dilute their control over
hardware, losing the control over the design and evolution process. It also
points out how helpful Claris could be to Apple if Claris were a more
effective organization. Is Claris held back for fear of harming the third
party developers Apple relies on, or is there another explanation for
Claris's problems? Some Claris products are pretty good, but nothing pushes
the envelope other than ClarisWorks.
* Operating systems are moving from being application-centric to
document-centric to eventually object-centric (where an object is seen as
simply part of a document that can be consistently manipulated by a
toolset). This is where everyone is going. It's just a question of who gets
there quickly enough to build momentum, and whether the advantages of such
a system can be sold to the public as added value (witness the oft-repeated
banality about how "Apple has less justification for their high prices now
that Windows makes Intel machines almost like Macs"). By the way, this
comment was in the context of Bill's OLE 2.0 demo, which will supposedly be
out this year, and which Microsoft will push across platforms.
* Applications must internally support workgroup coordination. By this Bill
meant they must support the delegation of updating pieces of a given
document. This sounds to me like something that should be part of the
object-centric OS.
* Cross-application, and maybe cross-platform scripting languages will
become increasingly important, as OS objects can be hooked together with
greater ease. This may not be called application development, but at least
can be considered application customization, and must be viable at least
for power users. Visual Basic will be coming to the Mac in all Microsoft
applications next year. [And will compete with AppleScript, Frontier, and a
host of other scripting languages that are rumored to arrive soon, all
compliant with Apple's Open Scripting Architecture. -Adam]
* Applications must provide intelligent assistance (agents, wizards) to
help users with complex tasks.
Multimedia was one of the Expo's running themes and had its own area
(granted, it was the dungeon room). This theme seemed driven largely by New
Media magazine, which had sponsored the InMedia awards for best interactive
products. There were a number of machines set up with vendors like Newsweek
Interactive and Nautilus. Multimedia still looks like an exciting area, but
one with serious pitfalls. Newsweek, for instance, provided still photos
and videos for the two stories specifically created for each issue, but
only gives you the text of articles for the paper edition's back issues on
the disk, and all because they haven't bought the electronic rights to the
photos they print! Another theme was clearly the PDA ruckus, what with
Casio's Zoomer, Apple's Newton, Sharp's Wizard/Newton, and AT&T's EO. They
all try to depend on handwriting recognition, but I was unimpressed by the
accuracy of any of the systems; they all added support of an onscreen
keyboard as a backup. All these booths interested passersby (especially
Apple's), but that doesn't mean that a huge yawn won't follow the product
introductions (or more likely, loud gasps as people see the price tags). I
see the Mac market as being the most open to this, as we are already the
most involved in open communications systems (email, file sharing, etc.).
Given their size, the units will be the most expensive DayTimers in
existence if they can't easily tie into desktop systems. This requires not
only hardware and OS support for moving info, but application support for
import, export, and synchronization of data."