marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (11/20/90)
For those of you who don't get a free copy of PC Week, there's a front page article about MS's three year plan for Windows in the Nov. 19th issue. PC Week has a chart detailing MS's plans for new features. I'll duplicate the information (without permission). Version Feature Availability ------- ------- ------------ 3.0 Multimedia Extensions Developer Toolkit this month 3.1 Windows in ROM for Laptops 1H of 1991 True Type Fonts Handwriting recognition extensions Late 1991 4.0 32-bit API Est. 1993 Multithreading Object-oriented File System Drag-and-Drop user interface File Browsing Tool Symmetric Multiprocessing* C2-level Security* * By running on top of OS/2 3.0 The multimedia feature will "allow developers to incorporate audio, video, animation, synthesized music, and new graphics and other formats into their applications." The ROM version will require a good deal of rework of version 3.0 to make it work. ROM requires more segregation of code and data than Win3 does. It will load faster and require less RAM than Win3 on disk. Version 3.1 will also have a power management feature for laptops. Apparently, the handwriting stuff will work with new applications. The article did not say that Windows would recognize handwriting. Version 4 will exploit many of PM's graphics functions. It will be able to run on top of OS/2 and take advantage of it's multitasking and multithreading capabilities. Wipe that drool off your chin! -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future