Windows 3.0: what's in it for you? How Microsoft's user interface makes computing easier - includes a related article on Windows software sampler

Home Office Computing, Jan, 1991 by Steve Morgenstern

Windows 3.0: What's in It For You?

How Microsoft's User Interface Makes Computing Easier

When somebody sits down to write the history of hype, Microsoft Windows 3.0 will surely merit its own chapter. With an ultralavish product introduction, hundreds of pages of advertising and press coverage, and a solid long-term spot at the top of computer software best-seller lists, this is one program each and every one of you has heard about.

Now that the product-release smoke has cleared, you might still have a lot of questions that need answering. Basic stuff, like "What does it do?" and "Why should I bother?"

Let's discuss what is unquestionably the most important software development in recent memory.

What is Windows 3.0?

Windows performs four basic operations that are related but more easily understood if tackled separately. They are:

* Simplifies DOS file-management functions.

* Runs special Windows-based software applications.

* Helps software use more than the 640K of system RAM available under DOS alone.

* Lets you load several programs at once, switch among them instantly, and cut and paste information among them.

How can Windows banish DOS?

In Windows, you manage programs and files using on-screen icons and a pointer controlled with a mouse. If this sounds like something you've heard about in an Apple Macintosh commercial, you've got the right idea. There are significant differences between the Windows and Macintosh graphical user interfaces, but the concepts are the same and so is the goal--a more instinctive, easier-to-use computer system.

Windows 3.0 comes with two utilities that handle tasks you'd ordinarily perform by typing cryptic commands at the C [is greater than] prompt. The Program Manager displays your program files as pictorial symbols, or icons. You start up a program by pointing to the icon and clicking the left mouse button twice.

The second utility, File Manager, displays the contents of disks by name in a tree structure, with subdirectories indented under root directories and program names indented under subdirectories. The File Manager performs all the usual DOS file operations--copying, moving, deleting, and so on--without making you type in commands. However, all file names are still limited to DOS's eight characters with a three-character dot extension.

Are Windows-based software packages easier to use than standard DOS programs?

They should be. There are two key considerations here--the way your documents look on-screen and the way you issue software commands.

With most programs, Windows displays a white screen with black letters, like a sheet of paper that comes out of your printer; it can also display in color when appropriate. The term often used is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). The shape of on-screen text characters approximates their shape on the printed page. When you use a Windows-based word processor, for example, larger type sizes appear larger on the screen, underlined type is displayed as underlined, and if you're using a proportional typeface where the letter W is wider than the letter I, you'll see the difference on-screen. Even the differences between the designs of different typefaces can be displayed with reasonably high accuracy (though this requires either custom screen fonts or a utility program such as Adobe's Adobe Type Manager or Bitstream's Facelift; see "Windows Software Sampler" for a selection of programs).

This graphical approach also lets you mix text and illustrations on the same screen. This is important for desktop publishing, of course, but also for word-processed documents that include illustrations, spreadsheets with charts, desktop presentations, and databases which store graphics in the same file with text information.

When it comes to controlling the program, Windows features what's called a graphical user interface, or GUI. The idea behind a GUI is letting you see your choices on the screen, then point and click to accomplish a task. (Editor's note: Windows is not the only GUI for IBM compatibles; see this month's Software Solutions department for a look at Tandy's Desk-Mate, a GUI with much lower system requirements than Windows.)

The underlying framework for the Windows GUI is, not surprisingly, windows--rectangular on-screen panels that function as "windows" on the information in your computer. Each window has a menu bar across the top with the names of groups of commands, such as File and Edit. If you want to use a command from a group, you point to the name with your mouse, click the left button, and a menu listing available commands drops down. You point and click on the command you want, and it is carried out. Many commands also offer keyboard shortcuts, which are real time-savers once you've grown accustomed to a particular program. When there are too many choices to fit conveniently on a menu or some typed input is required to complete a command, a dialog box appears.

Taken together, on-screen menus and dialog boxes organize all available command choices visually. While not limited to Windows-based applications, menus are a key Windows feature. Often, your non-Windows alternative is trying to remember the appropriate command to type in every time you want to get something done, which means not only that it's a pain to learn the software, but also that you may have to use those horrible plastic function-key overlays that come with some keyboard-command-oriented programs.