OS/2 e-Zine! - The OS/2 Debate

The OS/2 Debate - by Chris Wenham and Dr. Dirk Terrell

n all its history, OS/2 has never represented the largest market in the computer world. Because of this, many OS/2 ISVs are eventually tempted to develop cross-platform products. This practice often ignites strong emotions in the users who buy these ISVs' products. Some feel OS/2 ISVs should remain only OS/2 developers while some believe there is benefit to a cross platform strategy.

This month, Chris Wenham and Dr. Dirk Terrell discuss the pros and cons of this practice and how it affects OS/2.

Dirk: My feeling on this matter is that companies should not go cross-platform (and we all know that cross-platform = Windows) because it inevitably means the demise of the OS/2 version. The OS/2 version becomes the ugly duckling of the family because it sells fewer units, which begins the endless loop of less attention to the product, lower quality, and then fewer sales. Eventually, the OS/2 version dies.

Chris: Dirk, I disagree. I think if the OS/2 version withers and dies it's because it would have anyway.

And staying OS/2-centric doesn't provide any magical incentive to keep the developer churning out great software forever. OS/2 happens to benefit from software being ported from other platforms -- I could name a couple of graphics apps that came from the Amiga, for example. So if we benefit from cross-platform development by non OS/2 ISVs, should we selfishly hoard everything we've got?

Dirk: Yes, I think we should, in the sense that we should encourage ISV's to support our platform by purchasing quality products and interacting with them about our desires for the product.

Actually, I wouldn't mind OS/2 ISVs porting to Amiga, Linux, etc. Windows is a different matter though. The Windows market seems to make people "weird out" and develop delusions that they will make it REALLY big. They may succeed, but I suspect more often than not, they overextend themselves and go under -- meaning the end of the OS/2 version too!

Chris: More likely they enter a market where competition is much more rampant and bloodthirsty. I don't think they have delusions; I think they just suddenly find themselves trying to "keep up with the Joneses". And that is why the OS/2 versions suffer from lack of attention -- all their development resources get sucked into war with another Windows based competitor.

However, the technology is now here, such as Java and OpenClass, for companies to develop with a common code-base. That way they can't help but improve their OS/2 version at the same rate as their Windows counterpart. The OS/2 version could be just a recompile away, or maybe even just different install instructions. Then, as a result, OS/2 users benefit from competition occurring mostly in the Windows market and the developers earn revenue from both.

Dirk: It has been my experience that cross-platform code never requires "just a recompile" for anything more than very simple programs. There is always a significant amount of work to get things just right on all platforms. And cross-platform libraries tend to be bloated and address the lowest common denominator. Thus your code is slower and less functional than your Windows competitors'. To keep pace, what do you do? Switch to the Microsoft classes and leave your OS/2 users in the dust.

Chris: I'll concede that "just a recompile" will probably not apply for complex software, but it hardly leaves the developer coding from scratch all over again. As for bloated cross-platform libraries, well this also depends on what is used. OpenClass is slow, but some companies have developed their own libraries that are faster. Those who do are on solid ground whatever happens in the platform wars.

Secondly, Windows isn't exactly a single unified platform either. It took years for some 16-bit applications to be ported from Win3.x to Windows 95. Now Windows NT has a diverging API too. To this date, there are still more Windows 3.1 machines in the world than anything else. In short, writing to the Windows API is just going to leave the developer with the same problem as before: which API?

So, if you're going to be forced to write cross-platform to cover all the Windows bases, you might as well really be cross-platform. It can only help OS/2.

Dirk: By having even fewer resources for OS/2 development?!? Hmmm... Perhaps this is a clever strategy by Microsoft -- have constantly shifting API's that keep developers busy chasing them rather than developing for other platforms. Maybe Java will improve the situation in the long run, but only if Microsoft's attempts to sabotage it are thwarted. Unless Java comes on really strong, our only hopes for new software lie with smaller companies that concentrate on OS/2.

Chris: OS/2 users have long begged for ports of their favorite Windows software, it would look like we were using a double standard if we criticized OS/2 vendors for doing the same thing in the other direction. We must encourage developers to use cross-platform technologies, since the market has shown diversification of platforms rather than consolidation. We also stand to see better software come along when developers concentrate on adding and improving features rather than spinning their wheels like mad trying to adapt to Microsoft's API-du-Jour. When this happens, a port to any platform should be economical, no matter what the size of its user base.

Want to join in our debate? Why not send us your opinions on cross-platform development by OS/2 ISVs, and stay tuned to future issues of OS/2 e-Zine! for more debates on issues close to OS/2 users hearts.

Chris Wenham is a freelance web designer, writer and Englishman who now lives in Endicott, NY. In the past he has written comedy, sci-fi, Pascal, Rexx, HTML and Gibberish. He has been using OS/2 exclusively for the past 2 years.

Dr. Dirk Terrell is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars. His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.

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