Dave K4JRB wrote:
>
> I see very few logging programs, propagation programs, and antenna modelling
> programs written for Windows 95.
>
> The news from COMDEX Spring is that Microsoft will have NO support for DOS
> programs in Windows 97 and that DOS 7 behind Windows 95 is the last.. Why?
> because eventually W95/7 and Windows NT will become one as Windows NT Lite
> or V1 will replace W95/7 and the step up will be to Full NT. NT does not
> use DOS (more of a UNIX with a better user shell).
>
> So far I see DX4WIN and NEC4WIN (still NEC 2) and I understand Dennis at
> Logic is hard at work at a W95 version..and lets see.... I think the program
> from Cincy that competes with Logic and DxBase may be windows...So far no
> propagation programs.
>
I am probably missing something, but as far as I can tell, all my DOS
programs run in a command prompt window under NT if they really are DOS
programs and don't directly program the hardware or use special
installed DOS device drivers. I am typing this on a 200 MHz Pentium
Pro which runs linux and NT4.0 Workstation. Normally I use linux since
I think it is about 10 times better than NT, but I can boot NT so that
right now it is running NT. I can test out my statement above.
I just tried a quick test running TR 6.02 in a command prompt window.
All the things that don't require direct hardware support seem to work
OK. That is it logs, it dupe checks, computes the score, keeps track of
multipliers etc. I then ran a DOS yagi design program and it seems to
work fine. It's true that these programs don't take advantage of the
windows user interface, but they seem to work the same under NT as
under DOS.
On the other hand, TR, NA, CT all directly program the hardware to do
things like send CW and I can't see how they can get similar
functionality out of NT without writing special device drivers. I
think that its likely that any Windows version of these programs will
have fewer contest features than the current versions. Of course, we
could try to avoid the same mentality that made corporations embrace
IBM mainframes and now leads them all to embrace Microsoft Windows. We
could, for example, run an open system like linux where hams can add
drivers etc. easily, and aren't at the mercy of the decisions made
by a single software company.
73 Kevin w9cf
=-------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Schmidt w9cf@ptolemy.la.asu.edu
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1504
(602) 965-8240
(602) 965-7954 (FAX)
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