Aucbvax.1614 fa.info-cpm utzoo!duke!mhtsa!eagle!ucbvax!WANCHO@DARCOM-KA Wed Jun 10 22:56:44 1981 CP/M vs **NIX in the Office Environment The following edited exchange came about when Bob Bloom (IME-TECOM@OFFICE-2) solicited comments about a "spec" for a CP/M-based communicating Word Processor for an office environment... I believe there are several statements made herein which should not go unchallenged by those of us on this list who use tools which run in the CP/M environment in the office. I present this as only a temporary diversion from our otherwise highly technical discussion. Please limit any responses to factual and well-founded comments and information, as has been the norm for this list. Also, please be sure to include the above CC: list in your replies, as most of these people are not on INFO-CPM. --Frank -------------------- Date: Tuesday, 9 June 1981 13:46-PDT From: STEF Re: Communicating WP Equipment [...] CP/M is an operating system environment for very small machines, which will not grow up to run on larger machines when they become as inexpensive as the CP/M machines are today. I am speaking specifically of the 16 bit micros of the ONYX class, which will begin to displace the CP/M "price-range" machines in about one year from now. If you go the CP/M route, you will invest lots of money in building systems to run in an environment that will be very hard to maintain in the face of the obviously better quality of the UNIX/XENIX environment which is just around the corner. The trend is toward larger machines becoming cheap, and able to run the software implemented on the larger machines. This means that you should be building your applications software now on the currently available UNIX systems, with intention to later run that same software on equivalent sized but cheaper machines next year, and the year after, etc. ..... In short, your MicroComputer with CP/M development strategy is running directly counter to the main driving forces of the industry and the economics of technology advances. You should be targeting for full capability Message handlers such as XMSG and MMDF plus SCRIBE and EMACS equivalent tools, which are much more easily built now for the larger machines, than can be implemented in the limited capability CP/M machines. [...] May I suggest that you take full advantage of the work that has been done, by opening up the options by replacing CP/M with UNIX, and adding mail handling capabilities with "message data base" software, ala INFOMAIL. I think you will find that more of the software has already been built for the UNIX environment than you plan to implement for the CP/M environment. Date: Wednesday, 10 June 1981 17:46-PDT From: STEF Re: FYI: [Dave Farber : Xerox "worms into Apple?"] Dave Farber originated this item, which relates to the CP/M proposal. Today's Wall Street Journal has a product announcement for the Xerox 820, a low cost information processor that can be used as a desktop computer or word-processing system. The basic system costs 2,995 and comes with a display, a microprocessor, a keyboard unit, and dual floppies. The article hints that it can be connected to the Ethernet. If I remember correctly it uses an 8086 with CP/M. Interesting recognition of the dominence of CP/M is the micro marketplace. Dave .... I would comment that several aspects of the Xerox strategy seem strange to me, so I am not convinced that their plans to "worm their way into the APPLE market" with the 820 should offset my basic analysis that says large scale users, such as TECOM, should more likely consider UNIX/XENIX as a preferred "Domain for software accumulation." Cheers - Stef Date: 10 Jun 81 21:01:17-EDT (Wed) From: Dave Farber Re: FYI: [Dave Farber : Xerox "worms into Apple?"] I also agree that the 820 should in no way impact plans for Unix. CP/M is just not Unix. It does not grow the way Unix does. It is strictly a Micro system, while Unix is much much wider in applicability. Dave Date: 10 Jun 81 21:23:29-EDT (Wed) From: Dave Farber Re: FYI: [Dave Farber : Xerox "worms into App... I just want to restate clearly my view. CP/M is competitive with Unix ONLY in small systems like the Z80, 8086 etc class machines. There is NOwhere to grow and no chance from my view of any growth for CP/M. That still makes CP/M a good candidate for the small marketplace and the home market but as a basis for office systems in places that will grow, I think not. Dave -------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.