Re: Unix and XyWrite

[Robert Hemenway robhem@xxxxxxxx]

At 11:00 PM 11/8/98 EST, Robert Holmgren wrote:

> The truth is, I just like OS/2 better than Linux. OS/2, at this stage,
is so thoroughly
> debugged, especially the Workplace Shell, that Linux (and the unmentionable
> "multitasking" W##) aren't competitive.

Robert--

Very glad to know your opinion. OS/2 strikes me as close to rock-solid, but
Linux had begun to sound tempting. There seems to be no reason, for now, to
think of changing.

Almost rock-solid. An odd quirk was introduced with the most recent Fixpaks
that Carl and I, at least, are aware of. There were some exchanges here
about it, I think while you were away. It affects Xy4 running under OS/2
DOS. When the Ctrl/Alt/Shift keys are struck in combination, they must be
hit arpeggio style and not simultaneously. Strike them together and you get
the wrong keyboard.

I'd thought the most recent Fixpak had cured, but no. Behavior is the same.
It's no more than a small nuisance. Haven't tried reporting it to IBM,
though so far as I can see they are still correcting what bugs turn up in
OS/2..

>I'm enormously attracted to the Linux "idea", which
>seems to me so like a Xydea, of people contributing, for free, to create a
>free product that does what its users want. That's really great, that's the
>way "personal computing" was envisioned 15 and 25 years ago, before the
>assholes in big business moved to control PC software.
>

Do you know Eric Raymond's stuff? He's the fellow who posted the MS
Hallowe'en documents, with his comments. A smart, articulate man. I like
what he has to say.
And it was all new to me--probably not the rest of you.

See these things of his:

   How to Become a Hacker
   The Cathedral and the Bazaar
   Homesteading the Noosphere

They're at the site called Eric Raymond's FAQs
http://sagan.earthspace.net/~esr/faqs/

"How to Become a Hacker" is a lovely, concise piece of work that spells
out, line by line, what makes good programmers--like those who developed
XyWrite, like Baehr and you and Carl--tick. (Not much different from the
ostensible ethos of the adademic/scientific community, but there are
instructive variations.)

For more coverage of the Hallowe'en episode, you can go to Yahoo's news site
http://headlines.yahoo.com/full_coverage

Many links there (toward the bottom of the page) to lengthy comment on the
Linux sites and in the trade magazines.

R Hemenway