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DOS Dead? Xywrite better (fwd from Seattle Times)



X-within-URL: http://www.seattletimes.com/news/technology/html98/altpaul_080998.html
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     Copyright © 1998 The Seattle Times Company
    
     Posted at 08:46 a.m. PDT; Sunday, August 9, 1998
    
     [ Section ] User Friendly
     Bereavement for DOS will leave ample time for wake
    
     User Friendly 

(Send e-mail to: pa-new@xxxxxxxx) Not long ago Microsoft announced that DOS is dead. With the eventual merger of Windows 98 and Windows NT in a unified 32-bit system, all traces of 16-bit DOS will finally disappear from the operating system. The announcement reminded me of a memorable cover of InfoWorld, a weekly trade publication, in 1984. On a black sepulchral background, the cover contained only the words: "Is CP/M Dead?" The computing world was quickly moving to the MS-DOS standard popularized by IBM, Compaq and a host of "clone" computers. There may be people out there still using CP/M computers such as the Osborne I and Kaypro II. But not many. Eventually the same will be true of DOS. It will probably take longer for DOS to reach its final resting place. A lot of businesses and offices have custom programs for inventory, payroll, customer accounts and other applications that still run on DOS. Because it is small in size, uses little memory and runs fast, DOS also is used in some consumer applications. DR-DOS, an MS-DOS competitor, is reportedly doing a healthy business in embedded systems - devices containing chips and some smarts, like a cable box or alarm system. In the pantheon of software greats, some DOS applications will live on forever. Lotus 1-2-3, WordStar, WordPerfect 4.2, dBASE II, ProComm Plus. Tornado Notes, Sidekick, Norton Utilities and Managing Your Money are some examples. And the shareware standouts, including locally produced PC-Write from Quicksoft and PC-File from Buttonware. When major applications cost $400 or $500, shareware helped build software's accessibility and popularity with try-before-you-buy offerings. I still use a couple of DOS programs. Nota Bene added a host of document formatting and management features to XyWrite, an early DOS word processor that was blazingly fast and used, incredibly, just 200K or so of memory. You can open and flip between nine text files with Nota Bene and, although you'd never want to try to print out any of the files (in anything but straight ASCII text), its speed puts any graphics word processor to shame. Then there's Lotus Magellan, long ago abandoned by the spreadsheet trailblazer. Magellan is the best disk-management and file-search utility I've ever found - fast, intuitive, easy to learn and use. Some of its more convenient features, such as the split-screen view showing the file name on the left and a snapshot of the contents on the right, have found their way into Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.01 and Windows 98. Without updating, however, Magellan lost its ability to display many types of files. It cannot show html files, although it does display the text of the file (along with html formatting commands in text form). The same problem arises with e-mail. Magellan's cousin on the Macintosh, On Location, suffers the same disability. The software long ago was sold by its original developer, On Technology. The last time I called with a question, I was told the program was no longer being supported. The same is true of WriteNow, a fast, easy-to-use word processor for the Mac. It changed hands a couple of times, then dropped off the face of the Earth. All of this is simply a reminder of how dramatically the technology landscape changes. Without constant updating, active customer support and other sound business practices, software suffers obsolescence and eventual abandonment. It's amazing, in fact, that DOS has lasted this long. What other software created nearly two decades ago has much consumer or business use today? Had Microsoft not created a gradual migration path from DOS to Windows (which originally was a DOS application), DOS undoubtedly would have died a lot sooner. User Friendly appears Sundays in the Personal Technology section of The Seattle Times. Paul Andrews is a member of The Times' staff. Send e-mail to: pand-new@xxxxxxxx _________________________________________________________________