>> You misunderstand the concept here. Operating systems move on and >> become >> more sophisticated. Most good ones move the software writers along >> with >> them. The users buy new versions which take advantage of the new >> facilities and the whole system moves forward. >> >> If you continually make the whole thing backwardly compatible >> people >> carry on using the old versions and nothing advances. This is the >> state >> we have arrived at. Some new features never get used which is both >> a >> shame and a rebuff for those who worked on the newer ideas. We need >> to >> move forwards. >> > Indeed, at some point an Operating System - like any other > application > or process - will lose some elements of its compatibility with > earlier > version/environments. It is simply the nature of how progress is > made. I followed this discussion with interest.
An example is the colour drivers. While Tony Tebby and Marcel Kilgus (with people like Jochen Merz) did excellent work in producing, advancing and enhancing SMSQ/E, there came a point where software writers like myself had to face up to the fact that certain software improvements would cause programs not to work on the original platform. The specific example I have in mind is WIndow Manager 2. Almost all my recent programs since Marcel updated Easyptr have needed WIndow Manager 2 for them to work. At first, I was reluctant, because it meant I'd have a generation of programs which wouldn't work on an original expanded QL. Luckily, improvements were made with version 2 of the pointer environment for QDOS that allowed WMAN2 programs to work on a QL with pointer environment version 2, even though you didn't get the posh new colours. We went through this when pointer environment originally, anyway - some programs wouldn't work under pointer environment, yet most users either embraced it or put up with it to be able to use these programs. We have to look ahead or die. If people like Jochen, Per, Jim Hunkins and myself had not boldly written programs to use the new colours (and not able to work on the older systems) after the hard work of the OS designers and maintainers, we wouldn't have any programs using the new colours. Instead, we have a reasonable base and a constant trickle of new programs, not bad for a system generally though to have a died a couple of decades ago. BTW, I hope the Quanta workshop and AGM in Hove went well. I was unable to get the weekend off work or I would have attended (and yes, I did send in my proxy vote papers!) -- Dilwyn Jones _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
