On closing the DEC rat holes and Borland hacking the applause-o-meter
Date: January 1992
We are about to send a letter to Digital outlining our conclusions concerning DBC NAS and WOIA. It will be quite direct and concrete with the summary being:
1. We will jointly promote one API set for Windows clients, consisting of Win16, Win32, OLE and Cairo components.
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We do not suggest that we "merge CDA and OLE" or any of the other hundred rat holes that could be entered .. Long term I can't imagine their current world surving so I frankly think we are helping their future.
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From: carls Thu Jan 2 19:23:39 1992 To: billg; jeffr; jimail; kellyw; maikmap' paulma Cc: steveb Subject: Digital Exec Meeting, Dec 13 1991 Date: Thu Jan 2 92 19:21:14 1992
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We proposed that Digital really embrace Windows as the key client/desktop environment, that they define Windows as part of NAS, that they position themselves as the Windows integration company. We also proposed that NAS somehow fit into the "Windows Open Network/Info Archicture." They really did not respond to any of this.
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>From: w-maria Thu Jan 30 07:08:06 1992 To: billj; joamo; markk; pinckney Subject: Demo '92 Cc: hankv; martyta; pateh; w-maria; xlpr Date: Thu Jan 30 06:55:35 1992
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As you may know Excel 4 did *not* win the demo off .. The method for collecting audience feedback was this applause-o-meter thing reminiscnet of those things you pound at carnivals. We realized they were sensitive to high frequency and Borland had several whistlers who were able to influence it upwards.
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There is an off chance that Borland will do something obnoxious like publicize that they won this. I think this could backfire since people like Jay Singh of PC Week hinself said therre was something funny about that meter thing.
>>> It may be a good idea at the appropriate time to take the initiave on property inspectors .. We'd have to handle this carefully so that we don't make the Excel 4 UI appear obsolete .. We might say that we didn't include property inspectors in Excel 4 because we knew that they would be a key part of the future standard UI .. We might even say that we waited on property inspectors because we intended to be open about them and consult other ISVs before doing them.
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>From: billg Thu Jan 92 12:51 1992 Subject: Jobs/NEXT To: julieg; chrisp; maiemap Cc: jeffr; peteh; nathanm; arrong
Steve called te today and said that a small developer who is doing a mac emulator .. took mac word (probably version 4) and got it running on the NEXT box.
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My view of NEXTs volume has nit changed - I don't think they will do very well, so this would have to be very low effort for us.
Synopsis
Snippet
From: jimail Fri Jan 3 07:55:55 1992 To: billg; carls; jeffr; kellyw; maikmap; paulma Cc: steveb Subject: Digital letter Date: Fri: Jan 03 07:54:26 PDT 1992 Mail-Flags: 8000We are about to send a letter to Digital outlining our conclusions concerning DBC NAS and WOIA. It will be quite direct and concrete with the summary being:
1. We will jointly promote one API set for Windows clients, consisting of Win16, Win32, OLE and Cairo components.
..
We do not suggest that we "merge CDA and OLE" or any of the other hundred rat holes that could be entered .. Long term I can't imagine their current world surving so I frankly think we are helping their future.
..
From: carls Thu Jan 2 19:23:39 1992 To: billg; jeffr; jimail; kellyw; maikmap' paulma Cc: steveb Subject: Digital Exec Meeting, Dec 13 1991 Date: Thu Jan 2 92 19:21:14 1992
..
We proposed that Digital really embrace Windows as the key client/desktop environment, that they define Windows as part of NAS, that they position themselves as the Windows integration company. We also proposed that NAS somehow fit into the "Windows Open Network/Info Archicture." They really did not respond to any of this.
..
>From: w-maria Thu Jan 30 07:08:06 1992 To: billj; joamo; markk; pinckney Subject: Demo '92 Cc: hankv; martyta; pateh; w-maria; xlpr Date: Thu Jan 30 06:55:35 1992
..
As you may know Excel 4 did *not* win the demo off .. The method for collecting audience feedback was this applause-o-meter thing reminiscnet of those things you pound at carnivals. We realized they were sensitive to high frequency and Borland had several whistlers who were able to influence it upwards.
..
There is an off chance that Borland will do something obnoxious like publicize that they won this. I think this could backfire since people like Jay Singh of PC Week hinself said therre was something funny about that meter thing.
>>> It may be a good idea at the appropriate time to take the initiave on property inspectors .. We'd have to handle this carefully so that we don't make the Excel 4 UI appear obsolete .. We might say that we didn't include property inspectors in Excel 4 because we knew that they would be a key part of the future standard UI .. We might even say that we waited on property inspectors because we intended to be open about them and consult other ISVs before doing them.
..
>From: billg Thu Jan 92 12:51 1992 Subject: Jobs/NEXT To: julieg; chrisp; maiemap Cc: jeffr; peteh; nathanm; arrong
Steve called te today and said that a small developer who is doing a mac emulator .. took mac word (probably version 4) and got it running on the NEXT box.
..
My view of NEXTs volume has nit changed - I don't think they will do very well, so this would have to be very low effort for us.