Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/04/27/06:25:35
On Sun, 25 Apr 1999 walt121 AT my-dejanews DOT com wrote:
[snip]
> Windows 2000,
> according to the magazines, will not have DOS capability. Therefore, unless
> DJGPP evolves to work under Windows 2000, it is dead.
[snip]
But not immediately. In the UK academic environment (which is the one I
know about), Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 are still heavily used. There is
a healthy "if it ain't too bust, don't fix it" attitude, and hardware
dating from the time of Windows 3.1 still tends to run Windows 3.1.
With what seems to be a recent increase in home ownership of PCs, some
students are surprised at the obsolete hardware running this obsolete
system. But, once we have wasted time explaining 8.3 file names and why
you should "switch to" rather than (Mac-like) repeatedly double-click the
Excel icon, they can still do their work.(*) Among staff, if Windows 3.1
is familiar, a move to Win32 will waste at least some time. Excel and Word
are still Excel and Word, and few of the differences between the last 3
versions seem important for most purposes.
The millenium might present problems. However, the following solutions
will be widely applied:
(1) move the computer system clock back so it never hits the millenium;
(2) use (perhaps unofficial) patches or replacements for components that
fail.
Both (1) and (2) have problems. For example, (1) could cause outgoing
e-mails to have the wrong date on. But that can be avoided by running Pine
(via telnet) on an up-to-date central Unix service. This is very possible,
and indeed happens, at many universities.
If either or both of these approaches works in practice, Windows 3.1 and
Windows 3.11 systems will be with us in significant numbers for at least
several years. "Several" is vague, I know. My guess is about 6 years.
("Significant" is also a vague term ... Every such system will be
significant to its user.)
(*) Another serious problem I have noticed is in trying to save copies of
a file to several floppy disks, e.g., when several students are
collaborating on some work. For no good reason that I can think of, this
remains difficult and fraught with danger when using Microsoft Office,
whether under Windows 3.1 or Windows NT.
Daniel Barker.
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