jns@fernwood.mpk.ca.US (Jerry Sweet) (12/11/90)
Today with my SunTech Journal, I got a little brochure on DESQview/X, which purports to be an X client and server implementation for IBM PC compatible machines running under DOS. It also claims to provide "remote DOS computing". The brochure describes the capability thus: "Gives DOS users access to more powerful DOS programs that are not capable of being run on their own machine." This almost sounds useful, since, if it's true, you can then buy lots of relatively cheap software for a single 386 PC running multiple DOS sessions and use it to serve (in the non-X sense of serve) your other X-based workstations spreadsheets and whatnot. Is this possible? I dunno for sure, but that's the implication I get after a brief not-very-careful and not-extremely-PC-wise reading of the brochure. Any comments from the peanut gallery?
brooks@corpane.UUCP (David E. Brooks Jr) (12/17/90)
jns@fernwood.mpk.ca.US (Jerry Sweet) writes: [ Mentioned brochure about DESQview/X ] >It also claims to provide "remote DOS computing". The brochure describes >the capability thus: "Gives DOS users access to more powerful DOS programs >that are not capable of being run on their own machine." >This almost sounds useful, since, if it's true, you can then buy lots >of relatively cheap software for a single 386 PC running multiple DOS >sessions and use it to serve (in the non-X sense of serve) your other >X-based workstations spreadsheets and whatnot. Is this possible? I >dunno for sure, but that's the implication I get after a brief >not-very-careful and not-extremely-PC-wise reading of the brochure. >Any comments from the peanut gallery? I happened to be fortunate enough to attend the Fall 1990 Comdex show in Las Vegas, and I can at least tell you what I saw. Basically, I think it's pretty impressive. From what I can tell (and you can take it with a grain of salt, as my X experience is somewhat limited) it looks like a full X implementation, complete with libraries to compile your own X applications under DOS. And to prove it they had xeyes and xmaze (at least) running as X clients. I don't know which toolkits were provided. Also, I _THINK_ it was X11R4, but don't quote me on that. They had a network of DOS machines and Sun workstations, and dazzled us with numerious occurances of xmaze and xeyes, with DOS windows thrown in for good measure (DOS Shells, _NOT_ Microsoft Windows). Taking into consideration they were using 25Mhz '386 machines, the response was very good in all cases. However, there is one gotcha we discovered. DOS applications on remote machines are text-only (This is not a limitation with local DOS applications, I believe). Whether or not this is a problem/limitation depends upon the application(s) your looking to do. I don't recall a price being set at the show. Although they were using a Ethernet network at the show, they made no mention of what product or cards they were supporting for network access. Nor was there any mention of SLIP being supported. All in all, I was impressed with it, and plan to look into it further when time/money/situation permit. -- Dave -- David E. Brooks Jr UUCP : ...{ddsw1,ukma}!corpane!brooks Corpane Industries Incorporated -or- brooks@corpane.UUCP 10100 Bluegrass Parkway Phone: +1 502 491 4433 x122 Louisville, KY 40299 Quote: printf("%c", (char) 34)
bt@eng.auburn.edu (bt garner) (12/21/90)
In article <3940@corpane.UUCP> brooks@corpane.UUCP (David E. Brooks Jr) writes: > >I happened to be fortunate enough to attend the Fall 1990 Comdex show in >Las Vegas, and I can at least tell you what I saw. > >Basically, I think it's pretty impressive. From what I can tell (and you >can take it with a grain of salt, as my X experience is somewhat limited) >it looks like a full X implementation, complete with libraries to compile >your own X applications under DOS. And to prove it they had xeyes and xmaze >(at least) running as X clients. I don't know which toolkits were provided. >Also, I _THINK_ it was X11R4, but don't quote me on that. > ... >I don't recall a price being set at the show. I called Quarterdeck after receiving the DESQview/X brochure and they told me that DESQview/X would list for "about the same as DESQview/386" (list for a little over $200, street price around $150?). The developers kit (containing a Toolkit(s?)), would have a suggested retail price of approxamately $500. The toolkits (which they claim will be available) are: Xol - standard OPEN LOOK OSF/Motif - Open Software Foundation libraries and manager Xview - Xview OPEN LOOK implementation XVT - Mac/Windows/OS-2 compatability ************************************************************************** All facts are either from the brochure, or from the phone conversation that I had with QD. bt garner (bt@eng.auburn.edu)
nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley) (12/24/90)
In article <bt.901221094910@lab6.eng.auburn.edu> bt@eng.auburn.edu (bt garner) writes: >The toolkits (which they claim will be available) are: > >Xol - standard OPEN LOOK I give. What's the "standard" OPEN LOOK toolkit? You mention XView elsewhere, so that seems to leave "OPEN LOOK", "OLIT", and "NDE". Or did I miss one? -kee -- Alphalpha Software, Inc. | motif-request@alphalpha.com nazgul@alphalpha.com |----------------------------------- 617/646-7703 (voice/fax) | Proline BBS: 617/641-3722 I'm not sure which upsets me more; that people are so unwilling to accept responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate everyone else's.
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (01/05/91)
>I give. What's the "standard" OPEN LOOK toolkit? You mention XView >elsewhere, so that seems to leave "OPEN LOOK", "OLIT", and "NDE". Or >did I miss one? Yeah, OI or whatever Solbourne's C++ thingie is called. :-) Of course, I think they intend to make that a mostly- or all-Motif toolkit as well (so much for "the toolkit is the look and feel"). (Dunno if OI is fully OL or not, actually.) I tend to doubt it's NDE, as the product is called "DESQview/X", not "DESQview/X/NeWS". The DESQview/X blurb I got with some magazine says about the Xol toolkit, "This toolkit and its OPEN LOOK window manager is supplied and promoted by AT&T", which means it's almost certainly AT&T's Xt-based toolkit. Whether that's OPEN LOOK, OLIT, XT+, the OPEN LOOK toolkit, or Roland the Headless Thomson Gunner is left as an exercise to the reader and to AT&T's Marketoons(TM) or whoever there is in charge of making the names up. (*I* wish they'd follow Sun's lead and call the bloody thing OLIT, or fall back on XT+; calling it OPEN LOOK is somewhat annoying as OPEN LOOK also refers to the L&F.) I'm also curious what the window manager is that they show on page 14 of the brochure; it claims to be "the Tab window manager", which they later say is "formerly Tom's [window manager']", but the window decoration doesn't look like any flavor of "twm" *I've* ever seen. It's not their own DWM window manager (of which they say, in boldface, "One of its most important characteristics is that it is under 50K in size;" they also note the sizes of other window managers that I infer come with DESQview/X, with "mwm" being 650K, "twm" being 300K, and the OPEN LOOK window manager - which is AT&T's, not the Crucible/Sun one that comes with XView and Open Windows, and has window, workspace, and file manager clients - being 1.5MB).
gribble@ogre.cica.indiana.edu (02/22/91)
As any heard any news on DESQview/X? Has it disappeared into the vapor? Is it beta? alpha? Shipping? -- ************************************************************************** * Steve Gribble (812) 855-9172/7629 gribble@cica.cica.indiana.edu * Systems Manager, Inst. of Social Research swg@iumail.ucs.indiana.edu * Dept. of Sociology, Indiana University gribble@iubacs
cgaeth@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil (Christopher Gaeth) (05/21/91)
Does anyone have any info on Desqview /X? And does anyone have any info on what exactly X windows is and how it is better/worse than Win3.0? Same with Desqview/x better/worse than Win3.0? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Gaeth | My opinions are my own Tues-Thurs. The P.O. Box 260 | rest of the week I'm not responsible. Belcamp, MD. 21017-0260 | (301) 278-6395 | cgaeth@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------