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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

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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

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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:

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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

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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

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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

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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

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End of WorkS Digest *******************

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