Prikaz novog Windows-a

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Microsoft Windows 1.0

• 256KB of RAM (640KB recommended), two disk drives (hard drive recommended), DOS 2.0 or later. $99

Pros: You can launch applications even if you can't remember how to spell them.

Cons: You'll need state-of-the-art hardware. That means an 8-MHz PC.

Bottom Line: Will run on top of DOS for years to come!

Like all alternative operating environments, Microsoft Windows is a command shell that loads after DOS and takes control of the machine. Through Windows, you can run application programs and—within some strict limitations—move information between them. DOS is still there; Windows simply puts a new face on DOS and uses DOS to do some of its work. If you like, you can open a direct window into DOS and use the normal DOS command line.

Windows broadens the bandwidth of the PC user interface. Ordinarily, you and PC-DOS communicate by way of a single line on your screen. The other 24 lines go to waste, except as short-term memory retaining what the command has already printed. . . . Windows puts the entire screen to work passing information between you and the computer. . . .

The use of a mouse further improves the speed of the user interface. If a program's name is displayed on the screen, you point the mouse pointer (a little graphics arrow symbol) at the file name and click the mouse button twice. Windows immediately executes the program. You don't have to remember the name of the program or how to spell it, and you don't have to type its name.

Windows uses "tiled" windows: multiple windows on the screen that do not overlap but share screen area. If you have one window occupying the entire screen and open a second window, typically the existing window shrinks by half, allowing the new window to occupy the other half of the screen. You can temporarily "zoom" either window to occupy the entire screen and then shrink it back to its prior size. Or you can use the mouse to set a new propositional relationship between the windows, giving one window two-thirds of the screen and the other one-third, for example. . . .

—Jeff Duntermann, PC Magazine, February 25, 1986