Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.unix.aix:48861 comp.unix.bsd:15580 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:7745 comp.unix.solaris:28348 comp.unix.unixware:15243
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.unixware
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!pipex!uunet!fonorola!infoshare!whome!telly!evan
From: evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch)
Subject: Re: Unix for PC
Message-ID: <D0s6Jn.FGw@telly.on.ca>
Organization: Sound Software Ltd., Brampton, Ontario
References: <3ca50k$qqt@bantu.Provo.Novell.COM> <1994Dec12.160350.5262@brains.GUN.de> <3cki7l$qpl@bantu.provo.novell.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 03:18:59 GMT
Lines: 59
In article <3cki7l$qpl@bantu.provo.novell.com>,
Darren R. Davis <darrend@bikini.USG.Sandy.Novell.COM> wrote:
>In article <1994Dec12.160350.5262@brains.GUN.de>,
kirk@brains.GUN.de (Thomas Weyergraf) writes:
>|> For serious development work, that adresses a commercial market, Solaris is
>|> perfectly suited. With the standard UNIX environment, we all loved for
>|> a long time, you cannot earn money anymore. No one really wants to have
>|> a curses-based application as a commercial product. An interface-builder
>|> belongs in every development environment, to my opinion. And the SunSoft
>|> stuff is available, good and cheap.
>You might want to readdress the curses-based application idea. Univel had
>the same idea, we even included ICS's GUI builder in the UnixWare 1.0 SDK.
>I myself was quite surprised by the number of developers still doing
>curses development.
I think Thomas is *way* off if he thinks nobody is making money with
curses based apps. How many Unix-driven point-of-sale systems has he
ever seen with a mouse attached? How many dull accounting, inventory
control or order entry programs are GUI based? Not many.
Many folks in the industry are blinded by the sex-appeal of the GUIs,
the dazzling displays and the eye-catching graphics. But don't be
fooled. I'm pretty sure that SCO's character based stuff still outsells
ODT. In the circle I travel I see AIX and HPUX boxes not as speedy X
displays, but as DBMS server workhorses driving armies of Wyse 60s and
VT220s.
All the pretty GUI builders in the world that I've seen can't draw a
data-entry screen as fast as a competent programmer with one of the
common character-based 4GLs.
While I readily agree that the move *is* happening, it's happening far
slower than the hardwate salesmen and backroom propellerheads would like
to admit.
There are still a large number of applications for which switching to
GUIs doesn't promise extra productivity in return for the extra cost and
complexity. It'll be a *long* while before things like bank tellers and
airline reservation systems are switched en-masse to GUIs.
>In terms of a standard
>Unix environment, It's up to X/Open and SPEC 1170. UnixWare will be a
>reference standard for years to come.
But UnixWare can throw people off a bit. The console still usually
demands a VGA and pointing device, even to just get through the early
goings, so people are exposed to a GUI even if the system will just
have a dozen people at glass screens plugged into a Digiboard.
Someone who comes from a character-only-based system such as Xenix is
still in for a bit of a shock going to UW, even if the GUI is shut off.
IMO there should be better docs on *how* to completely shut the GUI off.
--
Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software Ltd., located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
Novell Unix Master Reseller / evan@telly.on.ca / (905) 452-0504
Are vegetarians allowed to eat animal crackers?