Aucbvax.2517
fa.works
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works
Mon Aug 3 16:51:58 1981
WorkS Digest V1 #1
>From DUFFEY@MIT-AI Mon Aug 3 16:06:48 1981
WorkS Digest Mon, 3 Aug 1981 Volume 1 : Issue 1
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - Welcome, Workstations - Harvard Apollo Experience,
Polls - OA System Developers & WorkS Census
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 1 Aug 1981 (Saturday) 0956-EDT
From: DREIFU at WHARTON-10 (Henry Dreifus)
Subject: Administrivia - Welcome to the WorkS Digest
To All WorkS readers:
As you have probably guessed, we are making the workstation
discussion list into a digest. It shall be a daily digest.
One of the few things we are looking for is a moderator. If
you have the (a) interest, (b) the time, (c) easy and proper
access to the Network (MIT computers), and (d) the patience,
please drop a message in WORKS-REQUEST@MIT-AI.
Henry Dreifus
------------------------------
Date: 2 Aug 1981 (Sunday) 1422-EST
From: BUSH at HARV-10
Subject: Four Months with Two Apollos
We have had two Apollos at Harvard for about four months
now, and I have a few personal observations to contribute from
my experience with them.
The best way to describe them is as a state-of-the=art
product, with the emphasis on product. The Apollo seems to be
the best large-micro-based system available with a bit-mapped
display, Winchester disk, and high-speed local network. Since
it started a little over a year ago Apollo Computer has managed
to produce a very solid piece of hardware, and quite a bit of
software. We have had no trouble with the hardware, and the
software, while poorly documented and a tad flakey (we are a
beta test site), has been basically usable. The network file
system works, and, on our small network, file access is not
appreciably slower for remote files.
The Apollo is not, however, a state-of-the-art tool for
computer science research, nor does it claim to be. It is not
a Dorado nor a Star-with-Mesa. A lot of the folks at Apollo
came from Pr1me, and in order to produce a working, competitive
product, they built what they knew how to build for a market
they were familiar with (the engineering/scientific market).
The system was tuned for user programming in FORTRAN, not system
programming, with such things as interprocess communication and
software interrupts not supported. Now that its primary market
is academic, Apollo will put a number of these features in, but
system programming, and the kind of features it requires, are not
a fundamental target of the system software. The system also has
a rather unsophisticated human user interface. Some of this is
clearly a matter of time, but some things that I imagine people
at Xerox would consider basic, such as a mouse and non-confusing
windows, are not along yet. (The Apollo windows are confusing
because they are all full-screen width and bordered with a single
line, so it is difficult to determine which windows are on top.)
It seems that Apollo did not do a lot of research in designing
their product, but instead will be educated by their users.
Bill Bush
------------------------------
Date: 2 August 1981 11:34-EDT
From: Brian P. Lloyd <LLOYD AT MIT-AI>
Subject: Results of Poll
Here are the results of the "Are you actively working on an
Office Automation system" poll. The results surprised me very
much. Here are some of the numbers:
Responses 32
Working on a system 23
Not working 9
The "Not Working" column also contains responses from people
indicating that they were simply implementing OA functionality
on their home systems (e.g. not for commercial sale/distribution).
That was a value judgement on my part and may not be valid.
There were many very interesting responses but in order to keep
this message short I will exclude most. Two immediately caught
my eye and are reproduced here:
------------------------------
Date: 18 Jul 1981 13:22 PDT
From: XXXXX at PARC-MAXC
...
The Xerox redistribution list for WorkS currently contains
57 members. I don't know exactly how many of them (us) are
actually working on workstation design or implementation,
but I suspect about 75-80% are, in one capacity or another.
-- XXX
------------------------------
Date: 16 Jul 1981 21:05 PDT
From: Kimball at PARC-MAXC
Nearly everyone from Xerox on list, as you surmised...
Ralph Kimball
Manager CUSP Development, Xerox
------------------------------
In the first note I was asked not to reveal the sender. Based
on the numbers in the first message, we could probably skew
the results, but that is up to you.
As mentioned earlier, the raw responses are in the file
USERS3;LLOYD WORKS on the MIT-AI machine.
Brian
P.S. I too am actively working on a system. I am managing the
software development for the M/A-Com Executive Management
System (MEMS) which uses the Convergent Technologies
hardware.
B
------------------------------
Date: 3 August 1981 08:00-EDT
From: DUFFEY at MIT-AI (Roger D. Duffey, II)
Subject: WorkS Census II
On 25 June, Randy Rivanciw proposed a census to give everyone
who wished, a chance to briefly describe who they are and what
their professional interest in personal workstations is. We
already have a variety of responses. However, a large number
of people have been added to the list since 25 June. Now that
the list population has stabilized, we want to give everyone a
chance to participate before making the results available.
If you would like to participate in this census and have not
already responded, please forward a brief description of your
interests in personal workstations to WORKS-CENSUS@MIT-AI.
Please do so promptly however, as we will make the results
available early next week.
Enjoy,
Roger
------------------------------
End of WorkS Digest
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