Thanks Stacy for your msg about OS/2 crash-proof?, on 25
09-25-1994

SS> This is all well and good, and I agree in general, but I
SS> still have to program DOS apps for the forseeable future. 
SS> Until the time that DOS is no more, I will still have to test
SS> my code out in a DOS VDM, and my system remains vulnerable to
SS> coding errors during development.  One of the reasons I went to
SS> OS/2 initially was it's crash-proof design, which hasn't worked
SS> out too well for me... 

I don't want to sound mean, but its just a matter of
practicality. SOO much work has gone into DOS support under OS/2.
Of course it has been important in OS/2's success so far. But, the
difficulty of getting out new releases that are stable (as you say
yours is not) can largely be attributable to the complexity of
providing a DOS emulation system. I am under the impression that
more work went into that than into the OS/2 portion of the
original 2.0. And, when OS/2 goes multiplatform in the guise of
Workplace OS/2, the Dos emulation is going to suck just like most
other non-Intel Dos emulations suck. The only reason that OS/2 has
even reasonably decent DOS emulation under Intel is that a large
amount of the 386 and higher processors are devoted to that type
of emulation. To be fair, the rumored and much fabled PPC 615 will
have similar (or better if you believe what you hear) emulation
also. But anyway, the whole issue is just going to get more
complex because the Intel version of OS/2 will use one method of
DOS/Windoze emulation and the RISC version will use another (into
which another huge blob of resources will be wasted.) I just think
maintaining all of this Dos compatibility is draining significant
resources from the primary reason for OS/2, which is full bore, 32
bit, protected mode applications.

Actually I no doubt that you will win. IBM will not drop the
emulation any time soon. But you also have to look at it from the
perspective of people like me. If you want to write Dos apps, you
can use Dos. But if OS/2 dies on the vine because significant
native mode OS/2 apps never appear and it just turns into a
glorified Desqview, then OS/2 users don't have anywhere else to
go. I would rather cut my legs off with a plastic diner fork than
go to NT.

___
 X KWQ/2 1.2b X I'm an OS/2 developer...I don't NEED a life!

--- Maximus/2 2.01wb