NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/comp/lang/modula2/964

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-25 | 3.4 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: [e-mail] (aubrey mcintosh)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: MS-DOS Oberon Environment Success Report
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:12:46 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Lines: 66


[e-mail] (Tim Channon),
In Article  <[e-mail]>, defines the problem succinctly:

> The problem is one of expectation, it seems to be live but nothing actually
> happens. Like most users I only have a 2 button mouse which I thought
> simulated a 3 button by clicking both buttons, perhaps not.

I have used SPARC-Oberon daily for work in chemistry.  Both document
preparation and application development are ongoing.  One attractiveness
of Oberon is the potential to work in the same user environment on
a workstation, a Mac, and a PC.  Materials for a conference talk were
calculated, laid out, formed into graphics, and converted to postscript
entirely in this environment.  The talk cue sheet, with a cartoon of
each slide and time-point guidelines was also prepared in this environment.

Oberon is very expressive and invisible.  Just as I can desire to have
a word appear in this message, and my touch typing skills deliver it
without conscious thought, the point, click, interclick operations with
the mouse allow me to desire to change fonts, duplicate or erase a structure
in a drawing, change a text color in a phrase of an edited document
circling me and my boss --- and it appears without conscious thought.

It took me about 3-5 days before I could "touch drive" the mouse, and I had
to have the User Guide open to the mouse command section during this training.
Touch typing took far longer to learn...


Now:
     left-right interclick is a command to copy the font/color/size information
from the cursor position and apply it to the selected text.
     right-left interclick means to delete the selected text.
     middle means to underline the text at the cursor, and upon release, to
execute the command with that name.

So a 2-button mouse is sadly crippled.  Some mouse drivers allow the user to
emulate mouse actions with a set of numeric keypad strokes.  Perhaps this
would work initially.  Or perhaps some enterprising user would modify a
mouse driver TSR to deliver a demo script...


I have booted the MS-DOS version on a 4 Mb PS/2 55 sx and received the familar
opening viewer set.   I accepted this as success and let the machine owners
go back to mouseless MS-DOS.

I have booted also on a Compaq Deskpro 386s with only 1 Mb RAM, a SyDos
removable cartridge scsi drive, and the Logitech mouseman.  The system starts,
and several applications will run, including Draw, the graphics editor,
and Write, one of the Text editors.  The listed requirements call for 2 Mb
of RAM, and indeed I run out without expressing the full use of the system.
A hardware upgrade is on order.

I have done various binary user data copies:

sparc --> MacII    Typeset text, drawings
dos386 ---> sparc  Typeset text, color drawings
Vax(ultrix) <--> sparc  Typeset text, drawings

Presumably, this demonstrates that user data can go between all these
machines trivially.  While this transfer is not promised as a stable part
of the system, it *has been demonstrated*

--aubrey mcintosh
--
Aubrey McIntosh  /  Chemistry  /  University of Texas  /  Austin, TX 78712
..another Gaelic learner...