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Home computers didn't need multi-user capability or much in the way of security (other than anti-virus) back then. I'd argue they still don't. I don't think the
by dajtxx 2y ago
Home computers didn't need multi-user capability or much in the way of security (other than anti-virus) back then. I'd argue they still don't. I don't think these two things were the problem.
I can take or leave shared libraries. They seem to cause a lot of trouble, but so do statics, so I'm on the fence there. But in the context of when this was released it's a non-issue.
I'll give you the CLI thing though. If the CLI couldn't be full-featured in a window that was an oversight.
- Symbiote 2y agoI don't remember any limitation of the windowed CLI on RISC OS, except it was slower if there was a lot of output. The OS generally had very little usage of the CLI though, since the GUI was present in ROM and booted to the desktop in about 3 seconds.
- xyzzy3000 2y agoThe main limitations of the multitasking command window were that it couldn't be used to drop into a language like the inbuilt BASIC interpreter and then change screen modes in BASIC code, or draw graphics using the BASIC plotting keywords, and so on. The command-line UI foreground and background colours were configured in the host app (typically Edit) rather than being changeable dynamically from within the command-line environment. There may be other limitations that I am not aware of, but for text-based interaction with typical command-line tools or BASIC in text-only mode, it's fine.