Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!daemon
From: tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen)
Subject: Re: more from that other county
Message-ID: <1990Aug14.123921.27095@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watserv1.waterloo.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo, WATMIMS Research Group
References: <546@mstr.hgc.edu>
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 90 12:39:21 GMT
Lines: 49

norman miller <nmiller@mstr.hgc.edu> writes:
> I learned two things: [...] that Win3 is being marketed through false and
> misleading advertising.  For, indeed, the "standard" mode does
> not support multi-tasking for any but Windows applications,
> something one discovers only after reading the manual.  Nowhere
> in the glitzy ads, or indeed in most of the unpaid hype, is there
> a hint that one will have to scrap several thousand dollars worth
> of software.

No, the ads don't say that you can't multitask DOS software.  But then
the ads don't say much at all beyond extolling the virtues of the GUI and
telling about how you can have applications bigger than 640K.  However,
just about ANY article on Win3 would say that; for example Infoworld's
introductory article said that "the 386 mode allows multitasking of DOS
applications".  Did you buy the product based solely on Microsoft ads?

Second, Windows was not meant to be a software switcher or a multitasker:
it's a graphical operating environment.  The idea is that you run Windows
applications in Windows, not that you use it to switch between DOS apps.
If ALL your applications are of the old-fashioned type (Lotus 1-2-3,
WordPerfect), you should (1) stick to a manager such as QEMM, (2) replace
them with the new Windows apps (Excel, WingZ, Word for Windows, Ami), or
(3) wait for the Windows versions to arrive (WordPerfect for Windows will
be available first quarter '91).  Windows applications are what Windows
3.0 was INTENDED to run!

Finally, DOS programs can NOT be safely run in protected (286) mode.  This
is also why OS/2 can only run one DOS session at a time (and has to switch
to real (8086) mode to do it), and why 286 Unix/Xenix doesn't do it at all.
A 386 has a virtual 8086 mode, which allows multiple 8086 processes to run
simultaneously.  This is the only way to safely run multiple DOS apps, and
it's used by Win3 enhanced, Win386, QEMM/386, OS/2 2.0 and the various 386
Unix/Xenix DOS emulators.  Alas, due to poor design on the part of Intel,
it's easy and fast to switch a 286 into protected mode, but switching back
to real mode (to, for example, run a DOS application) requires that the chip
be reset, which is VERY slow.  This is why it takes a long time to switch
to a DOS application.  The problem has been fixed on the 386 chip.

In short, please don't bitch about Windows' ability to multitask DOS apps
in standard mode until you understand why it's not possible, and don't
forget that Windows 3.0 apps CAN be multitasked in standard mode, and they
CAN use more than 640K of memory each.

Oh yeah --- did Lotus' ads tell you that 1-2-3 3.0 won't run under Windows
3.0, or under OS/2's DOS box, or with VP/ix?  No?  So is that misleading
advertising as well?  I think not...

[ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ]
[ "i don't even know what street canada is on"               -- al capone ]
