Research Stream: Examining Presentation Manager

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Research Stream
Presentation Manager
VoD LinkN/A
Streamed OnN/A
Streamed byNCommander
Stream typeEmulated on 86Box

Description

The goal in this stream is to understand the impact of Presentation Manager on OS/2. Up until Windows 3.1, it was still pretty common to load Exit back into DOS, but there's no way to exit Presentation Manager; it was the intended way to use the system. So what did you get out of the box, how it did evolve, and more?

Rationale

Sidekick

Borland Sidekick was a very popular TSR for handling data, and it was also one of the first available Presentation Manager applications.[1] The direct comparison allows to show how the GUI did or didn't improve things ...

Console Multitasker

This would have probably been the main use for early Presentation Manager, since there were very few native graphical applications at the time period, although I won't be surprised if some developers used TSHELL or the like to make do with less capable hardware.

Questions Asked and Answered

These were questions I wrote down and asked before doing the stream to try and answer them, and my collected feelings over them.

  • How does Windows 2.x compare Presentation Manager in OS/2 1.1?
  • How does Borland Sidekick compare between DOS and Windows?
  • How is Presentation Manager at handling running multiple console sessions at once?
  • Is Presentation Manager an upgrade over the TSHELL interface?

Interesting Timestamps

Findings

Gallery

Stream Plan

This is likely going to be divided into parts to determine the full context of what's going on

Part 1

  • Install Sidekick for DOS
  • Install WordPerfect for DOS
  • Install Microsoft C for DOS and OS/2
  • Install Windows/286 2.x
  • Install Word for Windows/Excel for Windows
  • Do some Windows app development or the like (like compile example programs)

Part 2

  • Install OS/2 1.1 Extended Edition
  • Build/write test application under OS/2 1.1 Presentation Manager
  • Try Word as OS/2 console application
  • Compare to Borland Sidekick for DOS to the OS/2 Version
  • See how the GUI has changed Extended Edition applications
  • Try PMWORD/Program Switcher with 5.0/5.5
  • Look at OS/2 1.2 at the end as the "feature complete" version
  1. ↑ https://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-1-1/
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