Review of the New Windows 3.0
Michael B Williams
Windows 3.0. I've been working with it for a few weeks, and I'm
writing a review of it for the next issue of the MIT PS/2 & PC
Users Group Newsletter. I thought I'd upload it for those who are
interested. Please note that permission is granted to use this
material, provided that the copyright notice is displayed. --MBW
Windows 3 is here!
By Michael B. Williams
Copyright 1990 by Michael B. Williams and the MIT PS/2 & PC
Users Group
Whether you're a DOS command-line purist, an OS/2 convert,
Macintosh user, or a part-time GUI user, the new Windows 3.0 will
have a dramatic effect on you.
The first group, the fast-typing command-line purists, won't even
consider mousing around with a slow, memory-hogging GUI (graphical
user interface) such as those offered by the popular DOS word
processor Microsoft Word and the painting program PC Paintbrush.
OS/2 converts, on the other hand, are power users who welcome the
processing power of Microsoft's multitasking operating system--and
can afford to pay dearly for a machine capable of running it. OS/2
users, like Jaguar owners willing to drive a hundred miles to the
nearest dealer, are attracted to OS/2's power more than its
practicality.
The last group is by far the largest, in part because there has
been no other practical choice. These users have been resigned to
work with character-based programs for spreadsheets and text
processing, reserving graphical software for projects that involve
drawing and desktop publishing.
If you're in this last group, then Windows 3.0 was designed for
you. Once a slow, unattractive GUI with limited appreciation for
the desktop metaphor, the newest version of Windows can
dramatically improve your productivity by providing an easy-to-use
interface across all your applications and allowing you to switch
effortlessly among them.
For the other groups, Windows 3.0 is bad news. The command-line
purists who have been courting DOS over the last decade are sure to
worry when they discover that their ability to remember and recall
arcane DOS commands no longer impresses their co-workers as it used
to.
OS/2 users may feel a lull coming on as the new Windows takes much
of the wind out of their sails. Windows 3.0 offers most of the
advantages of OS/2 and Presentation Manager, and Windows can
actually run multiple DOS applications concurrently--something that
OS/2 can't do in its current incarnation.
Macintosh users, who have been enjoying a fast, easy-to-use GUI for
six years now, are probably wondering what's so special about
Windows 3.0. The answer: an installed base of millions of
PC-compatible machines, most of which are powerful enough to run
Windows. Already, a number of Macintosh software developers have
begun working on versions for the Windows environment. (Look for
Wingz, a popular Mac spreadsheet, in the months ahead.) Before
long, the primary advantage of the Macintosh--its common graphical
user interface--may be history.
Why does Windows 3.0 have the power to accomplish what Windows 2
failed to do? Previous versions of Windows suffered from poor
memory management, an unattractive interface, and a lack of
graphical features such as icons. Windows also demands
high-resolution displays, several megabytes of memory (and disk
space), and a fast processor in order to be usable. Only in recent
years have such machines become widely affordable.
Painless Installation and Setup
The Windows 2 installation program has long been a sore point among
its users. It's slow (the entire process can take 20 minutes),
sloppy (it clobbers your PIF files and any previous customizations
to WIN.INI), and redundant: You have to go through the whole
sordid installation procedure each time you add or change a video
or system driver.
The installation of Windows 3.0 is a exciting by comparison. The
setup program, which occupies the first of six 5.25" high-density
diskettes, is divided into two parts: a character-based setup and
a graphical setup. The first part, which is entirely text based,
determines your machine's graphics adapter, mouse, keyboard, and
any necessary machine-specific compatibility fixes. The program
also warns you if you have less than the suggested amount of free
space (4.5 MB for the 286 version, and 6.3 MB for the 386 version).
The rest of the installation is completed in graphics mode. The
installation program, called Windows Setup, polls your machine and
asks you to verify information about your computer's resources
(such as what type of printer you have and whether you'll be
running Windows on a network) and prompts you to insert the
remaining disks according to your selections. A bar chart
graphically shows the percentage of the installation that has been
completed so far, and a help window remains on the screen at all
times to advise you on your selections.
If you desire, you can have Windows Setup run the Control Panel so
you can configure your printer. (You can delay this step, but
Windows Setup provides you with step-by-step instructions that the
Control Panel lacks.)
In addition to being helpful, Windows Setup is a gentleman: Unlike
many programs which clobber your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files,
Setup proposes changes to these files in an on-screen text editor.
You can then edit the changes as you see fit.
Automatic Setup of DOS Apps
You can have Setup scan your disk for DOS applications that it
recognizes, and Setup will create PIF's (Program Information Files)
for them, attach appropriate icons to them (such as a telephone for
ProComm), and place them in a ``program group'' for you (program
groups are explained below).
Once Windows has been installed, you won't need the text-based
installation module again. You need only rerun Windows Setup to
install an updated video driver, change your keyboard or mouse
type, or rescan your hard disk for new applications.
The improved Windows installation program, especially the Windows
Setup after-installation utility, is impressive--but it's only a
start.
No More Color Clash
The first thing you'll notice when you run Windows 3.0 is the new,
Motif-inspired windowing design and Macintosh-like icons of the
Windows Program Manager. The Program Manager is a utility for
organizing applications in ``program groups'' similar to the way
Mac visually organizes files into folders. Like the Mac's folders,
program groups contain icons that represent files. But unlike
folders, program groups are abstract collections of programs and
data files (termed ``program items'') that have no relation to the
physical location of the files on disk.
Windows Setup creates at least four program groups for you. The
Main program group contains seven program items: the Program
Manager, File Manager, Control Panel, Clipboard, Recorder (a macro
recorder), Setup, and the DOS Prompt (command interpreter).
The Accessories program group contains supplemental Windows tools,
such as a PIF editor, Paintbrush (a Windows version of PC
Paintbrush), Notepad (a limited text editor), Write (a limited word
processor), Cardfile (a limited database), Calendar (an appointment
program), a very capable terminal emulator, an analog/digital
clock, and a useful scientific calculator.
Setup also creates a third program group, Windows Applications, for
any extra Windows applications it finds on your hard disk, and a
fourth group, Non-Windows Applications, for familiar DOS
applications. The proper path, PIF, and icon settings are
determined by Setup, so you need take no extra steps to run these
programs.
Assign Icons to DOS Programs
You can easily add new applications by specifying the command line
needed to run the program and providing a short description that
appears below the icon. You add data files in a similar manner, so
that when you double-click on the icon, the data file is loaded
along with the corresponding application. The Program Manager
assigns the program item a default icon, but you can choose from
nine other icons stored in the WINFILE.EXE program itself as well
as an icon from any Windows .EXE file.
The Program Manager provides menu functions for adding, deleting,
or moving program items and groups and for automatically tiling or
cascading the program groups or aligning their icons when
minimized. In a salute to the object-oriented GUI, the Program
Manager allows you to move a program item from one program group to
another by clicking on the item and dragging it to the other group.
(You perform the analogous copy operation by holding down the CTRL
key while dragging the item.)
You can configure the Program Manager so that it automatically
minimizes itself when a program is launched and retains its shape
and position from one Windows session to the next.
[Continued in the next message]
___
Michael B. Williams | /| /| )| /| /
Room 527 | / | / |--< | / | /
Laboratory for Computer Science | / |/ |___)|/ |/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Internet: mi...@athena.mit.edu
545 Technology Square | CompuServe: 73667,3264
Cambridge, MA 02139 | AT&T: (617) 253-6015
--
___
Michael B. Williams | /| /| )| /| /
Room 527 | / | / |--< | / | /
Laboratory for Computer Science | / |/ |___)|/ |/
Michael B Williams
[Continued from previous message]
File Manager Supplants Executive
Any longings for the old Windows Executive might be satisfied by
the new File Manager, which provides support for files that aren't
part of a program group. But instead of a list of files, the File
Manager shows a tree of the subdirectories on your hard disk.
Double-clicking on a subdirectory expands the directory's contents
into a window of files along with their size, time of last
modification, and attributes.
You can vary the order in which the listing appears and select
which file information is included. You also can choose to view
the directory in lower case or display a status bar showing the
total size of all currently selected files. (You select multiple
files with SHIFT-click; unfortunately, you can't select files by
sweeping with the mouse.)
The File Manager isn't at a loss for icons, although they are much
less pervasive than in the Program Manger. Subdirectories are
denoted by a folder icon, programs by a screen icon (which looks
like a screen with a menu bar), and text files with a document
icon. Other file types use a generic icon.
As with the Program Manger, you can move and copy individual files
(or groups of files) by dragging with the mouse, and you can launch
applications by double-clicking on a program or one of its data
files.
Push-button Control Panel
The menus of the familiar Control Panel have been supplemented with
a dozen or so colorful icons that represent categories in which you
can customize Windows. The usual means of installing printers and
changing mouse sensitivities are there, as well as a few new
faculties, such as network and limited sound support.
The color customization is greatly improved. A set of 11
predefined color schemes (including some undoubtedly designed by
the Windows 2 crew) with names such as Bordeaux to Pastel is
included, but you can create your own schemes and call them
anything you wish.
You have a choice of 48 well-coordinated basic colors, and you can
add 16 of your own liking from a palette of a seemingly endless
range of shades. The palette lets you specify 256 levels each of
red, green, and blue, as well as 240 degrees each of hue,
saturation, and luminescence.
The Control Panel as added a few conveniences to font support as
well: Now you can view the fonts installed in your system in
addition to adding and deleting them. Windows supplies the usual
bit-mapped versions of Courier, Helv (a Helvetica clone) and Tms
Rmn (a Times clone) and adds a bit-mapped version of Symbol as
well. The scalable fonts are the same Roman, Script, and Modern
that we're used to.
But the most interesting addition to the Control Panel is within
the Desktop icon. As you might expect, you can change the cursor
blink rate, the border width, the icon spacing, and the granularity
of the invisible grid on which you position windows.
You can also change the pattern or image on the desktop. Windows
supplies 12, 8 x 8 bit-mapped background patterns (with names such
as diamonds, paisley, quilt, and weave), but you can create and
save your own with the built-in pattern editor.
More impressive is the selection of bit-mapped color graphics that
you can display on the desktop. If you have seen the bitmaps that
some Project Athena users display on their workstations and wished
that you could do the same, you've been granted your wish. Windows
installs seven sample .BMP files to choose from (including an
impressive 3-D chess bitmap), and any of these can be centered or
tiled on the desktop. The last Windows disk (untouched by the
installation program) contains a few more, and you can create your
own using the Windows Paintbrush program. You can also use
Paintbrush to load .PCX files and save them again in the .BMP
format required by Windows.
If you're running in 386 Enhanced mode (see below), there is an
icon on the Control Panel labelled ``386 Enhanced.'' You use this
module to specify how to distribute system resources such as
communications ports, printer ports, and processing time. You can
specify the priority of Windows applications over DOS applications
(or vice versa) as well as the minimum time slice for either.
Installable Help System
All of the Windows tools provide non-context-sensitive help via the
Windows Help program, which is a separate utility that provides
generous text-presentation capabilities. Each Windows tool comes
with a .HLP file that is fed to Windows Help. You can also load
.HLP files as you would with any program.
Windows Help displays five icons, labelled Index, Back, Browse
(backward), Browse (forward), and Search, that resemble somewhat
the buttons of a cassette player. (The Back button is a departure
from this metaphor, containing cutely drawn footsteps in retreat.)
Windows Help contains a thoughtful annotate feature that provides
a place to jot down notes that are helpful to you. You can
annotate any help screen, which is then marked with a paper clip
icon; clicking on the paper clip retrieves the notes.
Compatibility Suffers in Protected Mode
Windows 3.0 is a departure from previous incarnations in that it
supports three modes of operation:
Real mode is analogous to the operation of Windows/286. All
programs (including Windows applications) are restricted by DOS'
640 KB memory limit.
Standard mode takes advantage of the larger memory space of the 286
processor, allowing Windows applications to address up to 16 MB.
DOS applications are still limited by the DOS address space (but
can still take advantage of expanded memory). Unlike Windows/286,
Windows 3.0 cannot run even well-behaved DOS applications (such as
COMMAND.COM) in a window while operating in Standard mode.
386 Enhanced mode uses the 386 to allow multitasking of DOS
applications. Unlike Standard mode, 386 Enhanced mode lets you run
DOS applications (including those that write directly to screen
memory) in a window.
The Standard and 386 Enhanced modes use a memory scheme that
differs from that used in previous versions of Windows. Because of
this change, many Windows applications won't run correctly (if at
all) under Windows 3.0. If you try to run a Windows application
that was not written to execute under version 3.0, Windows will
display a message to this effect and allow you to abort the
request.
Unfortunately, most programs will need to be updated in order to
run correctly, and some developers have already planned upgrades.
The developer of CorelDRAW! has indicated that version 1.2, to have
been announced with the introduction of Windows 3.0 on May 22, will
support the new Windows.
One program that does run is Microsoft Word for Windows 1.0, which
was written with Windows 3.0 in mind (and won't display a warning).
Smaller Windows applications, such as GCP 4.20 (a graphics viewer)
and Tiffany 1.01 (a screen capture utility) also run under Windows
3.0.
If the applications that you use, won't run, you have two
alternatives:
Invoke Windows with the /R switch, which runs Windows in real mode.
Your applications will run, but you'll be forsaking the large
memory space offered in Standard mode (which you may not need
anyway.)
If you're using a 386 and you still want to be able to multitask
DOS operations, it is possible (indeed, practical) to run another
real-mode copy of Windows 3.0 while you're in 386 Enhanced mode.
(This actually works quite well, and for maximum effect, the second
copy of Windows runs about the same speed as Windows/286!)
Minor Improvements
A host of minor improvements is sprinkled throughout Windows 3.0.
The Terminal program now supports the ASCII, X-modem, and Kermit
download protocols. You can assign macros to any of eight function
keys and change the font in which the text is displayed. Modem
commands are configurable, and Hayes, MultiTech, and TrailBlazer
modems are supported directly.
The Calculator offers both a standard (``four-function'') mode and
a mode that contains most of the functions of a
statistical/scientific calculator.
The Clipboard can display text using various fonts and can save
clippings in a proprietary .CLP format.
The Print Spooler (renamed the Print Manager) can alert you when a
file is being sent to a printer, keep a record of the files
printed, and manage a networked printer.
The Clock has a digital setting in addition to the analog view.
Bugs and Features
As with any program that has been subject to a major overhaul,
Windows 3.0 has its quirks (and bugs).
Notepad files are still limited to approximately 48K of text (a
ridiculously small amount considering the 16 MB address space of
standard mode operation). Realistically, you'll be limited to much
less than this, because Notepad becomes more sluggish as the file
gets bigger. A bug in the program tends to produce a ``File is too
large for Notepad'' error when you attempt to load a file
significantly larger than the one you were previously editing.
The File Manager reads a tree of your directories every time you
run it. While this takes only a few seconds the first time, the
delay seems to increase in direct proportion to the number of times
you have to sit through it. The File Manager should instead save
the tree for use in subsequent sessions.
Conclusions
The above quirks, however, are too minor to dwell on. Windows 3.0
is a robust, mature operating environment that has an excellent
chance at becoming the de facto standard on IBM PC-compatible
personal computers. Its speed rivals that of OS/2, its looks match
those of the Macintosh, and it has more compatible applications
that both combined. If the computer for the rest of us turns out
to be an IBM PC compatible, then it must be one running Windows
3.0.