A Commentary on DOS vs.
Windows Applications
The demise of DOS, to
pinch,
(once again), a pithy line from the writings of Mark Twain, has been
greatly exaggerated. DOS is not dead, not by a long shot, but its venue
is changing. Some applications, like ours, originally written for DOS,
are moving on to a different platform, a faster, more versitile, and
newer platform, a Windows platform, and this is good.
Think about this: What is the MAIN difference, (when you get right down
to it), between Windows and DOS? The answer, of course, is the MOUSE.
But, do you realize what you PAY for the ability to "mouse around?"
There was a time, back when, that engineering type DOS-based programs
were composed of finely tuned code in canonic form. They had to be
carefully engineered to pack so much computing power into so very
little RAM and pass from Vendor to User on a 360 KB 5 1/4
inch
floppy disk. Those days are gone. Because of the mentality of your
typical Windows developer there is no need to fine tune anymore.
Typical Windows programs occupy many Megabytes as compared to the
Kilobytes of their DOS counterparts. Bloat is "in" and good code is
"out." A good engineer abhors waste, but waste is what you get with
typical Windows-based applications. A good engineer strives to create
new things in canonic form, i.e., they are as simple as possible to do
the job that needs to be done. This makes them cost less, take up
little space, run faster, and create far fewer problems. This is good
engineering. Modern day Windows "software engineers" defame the name
"engineer."
We won't mention that, along with Windows, came the "registry," .ini
files, .dll files, and even MORE arcane file types and bloat. Have you
ever tried to manually delete a Windows program? Good luck!
Only ONE really good thing, other than the MOUSE, has come from
Windows, and that is MODERN computers. Because of bloated Windows code,
and a "who cares" attitude on the part of developers, todays' PC's are
MUCH better than when DOS was King. Because of the need to "cope with
the bloat," modern PC's have much more RAM, storage space, and
convenience. This is good. But remember, its NOT because Windows-based
programs are so much better, but because Windows-based software is so
much more bloated and wasteful.
Our programs are, (roughly), 200 KB in size, and, byte for byte, pack a
LOT of muscle in a tiny bit of RAM. Our programs do NOT write to the
"registry" and all those other hard to find places within the labyrinth
of Windows that Windows-based applications do. You can delete ours, if
you would ever want
to, with ONE simple click!
We are of the belief that more DOS-based engineering programs, those
that involve basic calculations, every day kinds of tasks, should be
"ported to Windows," by
their developers, so that they can continue on helping present day
engineers as they did those of 10 to 20 years back. Some programs will never
go "out of date." What is going to replace Ohm's Law? What will replace
a Smith Chart for sheer usability and insight in to an impedance
matching network? Will inductance change?How about capacitance? Winding
a coil? These things are timeless, and so are basic RF design
techniques and
utilities.
Respectfully,
James J. Lev
President, Microwave Software