4 ms·

What Amiga tech is that? ARexx started as retail software that Wishful Thinking Development sold (like WShell). Commodore acquired it years later.

by puzzle 8y ago

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
MS didn't want to collaborate on OS2 any more. So IBM licensed some things for the GUI from Amiga that became Workplace Shell. Possibly included BOOPSI. A REXX licence was indeed part of the deal from what little I remember. http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch03s02.html#os_2 http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch03s02.html#os_...
- puzzle 8y ago
  That's an extremely thin sourced description. WPS and BOOPSI both were object-based systems written in C, yes, but WPS originated from the SOM work at IBM Austin: http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1994/9416/9416d/9416d.htm http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Web... I developed for the Amiga and used OS/2, even on PowerPC machines. They did not look like each other. Although BOOPSI was object-based, it was still something bolted on top of the 1.x APIs. For example, BOOPSI had base classes for gadgets and images, but windows were an entity that lived outside altogether. OS/2 had the same problem: application windows were handles. But inside WPS, everything was a SOM object. In the Amiga Workbench, everything was ad-hoc, even if some semblance of object-orientedness appeared with things like AppIcons, which required cooperation from the applications. They were still not objects: I am fairly confident that AppIcons were implemented through calls to workbench.library, not by creating a new BOOPSI object. I remember this stuff because I had lots of arguments with some very vocal OS/2 developers. I still don't see what IBM would have needed from Commodore. It was actually the other way around: IBM extorted patent fees and cross licensing from Commodore. They had more patent lawyers in Boca Raton than C= had engineers in West Chester (my source: Dave Haynie, who dealt with such lawyers and had probably the most useful Commodore patents, the Zorro ones). And as I mentioned, ARexx came out in 1987, in the 1.x days, as a commercial product, years before Commodore adopted it and before the OS/2 events mentioned. It had no license from IBM (what for?), since Will Hawes wrote it himself for the Amiga's architecture.
  - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
    I don't quite see what they might have needed either - BOOPSI was pure guess on my part after seeing how that link described it. My only contact with OS/2 was work had one ps/2 tower with it. I used it a little, never encountered an API or compiler. In those days my experience was 95% Amiga, and just enough Windows to ensure that after Amiga my career went back to Unix. After Intuition and BOOPSI, even ARexx, Windows just seemed too primitive and too much like hard work to develop for. I do have some vague memory of IBM licensing something for OS/2 from the time. That weak reference was all search turned up. Quite a few links of people talking about it though, including a near duplicate of the conversation we're having on The Register. So if urban legend it definitely gained some legs somewhere. My CATS newsgroup archives, Devcon handouts and other stuff from that era are long gone. That's not very helpful, sorry. :)

What Amiga tech is that? ARexx started as retail software that Wishful Thinking Development sold (like WShell). Commodore acquired it years later.

by puzzle 8y ago

What Amiga tech is that? ARexx started as retail software that Wishful Thinking Development sold (like WShell). Commodore acquired it years later.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

MS didn't want to collaborate on OS2 any more. So IBM licensed some things for the GUI from Amiga that became Workplace Shell. Possibly included BOOPSI. A REXX licence was indeed part of the deal from what little I remember. http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch03s02.html#os_2 http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch03s02.html#os_...

puzzle 8y ago
That's an extremely thin sourced description. WPS and BOOPSI both were object-based systems written in C, yes, but WPS originated from the SOM work at IBM Austin: http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1994/9416/9416d/9416d.htm http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Web... I developed for the Amiga and used OS/2, even on PowerPC machines. They did not look like each other. Although BOOPSI was object-based, it was still something bolted on top of the 1.x APIs. For example, BOOPSI had base classes for gadgets and images, but windows were an entity that lived outside altogether. OS/2 had the same problem: application windows were handles. But inside WPS, everything was a SOM object. In the Amiga Workbench, everything was ad-hoc, even if some semblance of object-orientedness appeared with things like AppIcons, which required cooperation from the applications. They were still not objects: I am fairly confident that AppIcons were implemented through calls to workbench.library, not by creating a new BOOPSI object. I remember this stuff because I had lots of arguments with some very vocal OS/2 developers. I still don't see what IBM would have needed from Commodore. It was actually the other way around: IBM extorted patent fees and cross licensing from Commodore. They had more patent lawyers in Boca Raton than C= had engineers in West Chester (my source: Dave Haynie, who dealt with such lawyers and had probably the most useful Commodore patents, the Zorro ones). And as I mentioned, ARexx came out in 1987, in the 1.x days, as a commercial product, years before Commodore adopted it and before the OS/2 events mentioned. It had no license from IBM (what for?), since Will Hawes wrote it himself for the Amiga's architecture.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  I don't quite see what they might have needed either - BOOPSI was pure guess on my part after seeing how that link described it. My only contact with OS/2 was work had one ps/2 tower with it. I used it a little, never encountered an API or compiler. In those days my experience was 95% Amiga, and just enough Windows to ensure that after Amiga my career went back to Unix. After Intuition and BOOPSI, even ARexx, Windows just seemed too primitive and too much like hard work to develop for. I do have some vague memory of IBM licensing something for OS/2 from the time. That weak reference was all search turned up. Quite a few links of people talking about it though, including a near duplicate of the conversation we're having on The Register. So if urban legend it definitely gained some legs somewhere. My CATS newsgroup archives, Devcon handouts and other stuff from that era are long gone. That's not very helpful, sorry. :)