Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 01:37:37 +0100 From: Roelof Osinga <roelof@nisser.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: "Albert D. Cahalan" <acahalan@cs.uml.edu>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: OT: non-Unix history (Was: FreeBSD vs linux) Message-ID: <3A6F7551.6207DFDD@nisser.com> References: <14957.31196.939559.889627@guru.mired.org> <3A6F43F7.E43C6CA0@nisser.com> <14959.23870.728403.859934@guru.mired.org> <3A6F61DC.39E9CF0D@nisser.com> <14959.25735.290730.482881@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer wrote: > > ... > Hmm - I think we're talking about different apps. Personally, I find > it hard to believe that *anything* could fail because it "didn't > execute good enough", given how many copies of their stuff MS sells. MS stuff 'looks good'. But I guess you had to stand besides secretaries actually working with the stuff in a time-shared environment. It wasn't a pretty sight. It was OK for programmers, somehow. I guess it's because a) we're used to it and b) caused it in the first place :). But if you're a non-suspecting employee you get annoyed by inexplicable delays. Heck. Even I do. I shelled out the - whoa, boy! - $25 for a MI/X licence and there are some delays, and beeps!, that really annoy me. But, well, I've seen worse <g>. > I think we may be talking about different apps - or maybe I have a > warped view. I worked for Ingres, and later Sybase, and deciding to > support a new platform was a big deal. Yeah, everyone supported Sun, > and almost everyone supported hp and dec (both of which were in both > the mini and workstation market), but beyond that, it was pretty > haphazard. Nah, rooted for Apollo myself ;). Then again, I'm a contrary kind of guy. HP, of course, bought Apollo. But that's a different perspective. Yours is the systems, mine's the level below. Ingres ran (runs?) on everything we would've needed. Later, Sybase too. So what porting problem? Mind you, back in '81 we picked Data Access's Data Flex (because dBase II supported but two files and mainframes were outa reach) and sticked with it. Sure, Ingres was better and, later, Sybase too. But also out of reach for our market niches. But I was talking about the desktops, hence end-users. You know, the wee folk that use the apps by the folk that use the apps you write/wrote ;). They don't care about TCP-C stats, they care about how long it takes to actually see the char your key'd. > Well, to little to capture the market. But Word Perfect is still > around, and still being updated. You can even run it on FreeBSD, if > you want to. Nope. Never could get used to those weird key-combo's. Seems OS/2 is also 'still around'. Though I laurate IBM for their support. MS could - and should - learn from them. Did, too (FUD et al :). But that they're still around does not mean they've got the market position they once had. That's like saying CP/M apps. can still be found. Doesn't mean CP/M is still a viable option. Don't get me wrong. I'ld rather see WP succeed then SM-Word, but... > I was going to ask if there was a version of WordStar around, but I > don't see jstar in the ports tree :-(. Personally, I don't run emacs > in an xterm - I give it it's own window. Much faster display updates > that way. Nah, that's jed. Not to be mistaken with joe's and many's the time I did just that. The one is slang knowledgable, the other not. Both claim WordStar support. It's jed you want, though <g>. Well... either that or joe. Hm: nisser:/home/www/Slak$ ls /usr/ports/distfiles/j* /usr/ports/distfiles/joe2.8.tar.Z /usr/ports/distfiles/jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz Guess it's joe's. There's also WordStar support in Emacs. Tried it once, but that was a long time ago. Back when OS/2's (what's his name, German guy) GNU port was recent. (Something like EMX?). > I do know about keystrokes, though. Mine date from Mince on CP/M-80. I > even spent one summer hacking up a microemacs so my muscle memory > actions (mostly GNUish) did what I expected them to. Mince I don't know. Though the name sounds kinda familiar. Then again, what doesn't. uEmacs I've used, too. Not enough to get muscle memory, though. WS to the core. Heck, I've even forgotten all I once knew about vi. I've written emacs lisp code for Data Flex syntax high-lighting and whatnot (CI$ days), but nowadays... Roelof PS like the song, it's all coming back to me now ;). I do - sorta - remember mince. At least, if it was an emacs clone for itty-bitty microcomputers. If not, well, did give up smoking some time ago anyway <g> -- Home is where the (@) http://eboa.com/ is. Nisser home -- http://nl.nisser.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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