OT: A Good DOS/Business Group
Harry Potter
to advertize it to such?
Bill Buckels
>I think Template Creator would be good for businesses. Where do I go to
>advertize it to such?
Ideally sometime around 1981 would be a good place to start:) By December
31,1999 with fears of y2k non-compliance most businesses that were using
MS-DOS had already made the move to Windows. Even accountants who are noted
for being notoriously tight about upgrading their MS-DOS accounting programs
eventually crossed that particular chasm, albeit some as reluctantly as some
(many) programmers who by 1992 with the advent of Windows 3.1 reacted in
quick disbelief when the Microsoft side of the planet became fenestrated
within what seemed to be an overnight response to Multimedia Windows.
It is unlikely today that template creator for DOS would be be much good for
most businesses nor even for most programmers. Before their evolution to
Windows products or disappearing from the planet altogether, many DOS
programmer's tools like Clarion and Clipper existed that worked quite well
to knock together really-good real-world business applications
really-quickly.
Clarion's longevity as a DOS product was actually quite incredible. I
worked-on a retail POS system in Clarion 2 back in the late '80's early
'90's that I believe is still supported today. I extended Clarion with
assembler and C... Also Clipper... I just decommisioned a DOS Clipper
application for one of our major clients last year.
Clarion in particular had a very easy to use designer and was a 3GL - 4GL
environment with a built-in data base etc.
I doubt if Template Creator will ever be on the same level for ease of use
and as robust as those olde tyme environments, and I would therefore ask:
What about template creator would be good for businesses? Or more properly,
with the approx. 15 years of MS-DOS code generators available that were
really excellent for many programming languages why would anyone who is
really in the business of supporting MS-DOS systems for business (if one can
find any) not just stick to what they know?
If your answer is that someone may want to write in C, many products exist
like the C Database Toolchest which are also really cool and come with good
examples:
I reference it on my links page here: http://www.cpm8680.com/mix/index.htm
Dennis Saunder's (Mix Power C) site is here: http://www.mixsoftware.com/
The Authors can be seen here: http://vdgsa.org/pgs/conc04/h12.html
Bill
Richard Bonner
> "Harry Potter" <maspet...@aol.com> wrote:
> >I think Template Creator would be good for businesses.
(Snip)
> I doubt if Template Creator will ever be on the same level for ease of use
> and as robust as those olde tyme environments, and I would therefore ask:
> What about template creator would be good for businesses? Or more properly,
> with the approx. 15 years of MS-DOS code generators available that were
> really excellent for many programming languages why would anyone who is
> really in the business of supporting MS-DOS systems for business (if one can
> find any) not just stick to what they know?
>
> Bill
*** In my travels, I see many, many businesses using DOS retail POS
and inventory systems, and also see parts dealers with them. They are
often running under Windows, but many are not.
Richard Bonner
http://www.chebucto.ca/~ak621/DOS/
Paul Bartlett
> [trim]
> *** In my travels, I see many, many businesses using DOS retail POS
> and inventory systems, and also see parts dealers with them. They are
> often running under Windows, but many are not.
For several years I have worked part time for the largest bookstore
chain in the USA. Until the last iteration several months ago, the POS
software for the cash registers was a DOS application running under
Windows. Now it is entirely a Windows application. Quite frankly, I
found the DOS application easier to use. Also, the store operation
depends heavily on handheld scanners with radio links to a central
server. These scanners run ROMDOS. Although I do not myself currently
have any form of DOS running on any computer I use personally, in many
ways I prefer the DOS interface over that of Windows.
--
Paul Bartlett
Richard Bonner
> On Wed, 24 Jun 2009, Richard Bonner wrote:
> > *** In my travels, I see many, many businesses using DOS retail POS
> > and inventory systems, and also see parts dealers with them. They are
> > often running under Windows, but many are not.
> For several years I have worked part time for the largest bookstore
> chain in the USA. Until the last iteration several months ago, the POS
> software for the cash registers was a DOS application running under
> Windows. Now it is entirely a Windows application. Quite frankly, I
> found the DOS application easier to use.
*** When I question retail workers, most, but not all, prefer the DOS
apps because they did not have to use a mouse. Since they were entering
numbers on the keyboard, they preferred to also issue the commands via
function keys instead of having to click on a menu and run down the
selections to choose a task. I don't see why the Windoze ones could not
be set up to be controlled with function keys, too.
A few years ago I spoke with a used-CD store owner who uses an ancient
DOS POS and database system. He keeps it because it is stable and because
he does not have to buy a new computer. If it fails, he can pick up a
replacement for a song or often for free.
> Also, the store operation
> depends heavily on handheld scanners with radio links to a central
> server. These scanners run ROMDOS. Although I do not myself currently
> have any form of DOS running on any computer I use personally, in many
> ways I prefer the DOS interface over that of Windows.
> --
> Paul Bartlett
*** I think anyone who is entering data is better off with a
key-oriented control system - whatever the operating system is. As for
Windoze, I don't see that it offers anything over the DOS ones in these
instances except that it requires more overhead to do exactly the same
thing. )-:
Richard Bonner
http://www.chebucto.ca/~ak621/DOS/