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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?