by Vaughn Vernon
from the December 1987 issue of Computer Language
OS/2, Microsoft’s latest addition to its operating system line, could well become the operating system of the next decade for Intel 80286/80386 microcomputers. Its multitasking capabilities, full-featured application programming interface (API), and extendability to future hardware almost guarantee its success.
Microsoft sees microcomputing as a platform for office automation hardware and software: The office of the future (regardless of a company’s structure and line of business) is envisioned as a place of personal and group productivity. Personal productivity is to be achieved through multitasking, common graphical user interfaces, and the sharing of resources such as data and powerful hardware. Group productivity will occur through individual use of wide and local area networks (LANs).
This article introduces you to the variety of system services provided in OS/2, allowing you to investigate the opportunities offered by OS/2 without a substantial investment of time and money. First I will overview the operating system, then I will delve into the details of the system services.
OS/2 Software Development Kit
The OS/2 system architecture has three layers. The main layer is the OS/2 kernel and system services. The second layer is the Windows Presentation Manager (WPM), Microsoft’s new Windows interface specifically for OS/2. The third layer is the OS/2 LAN Manager, the control software for local and wide area networking. This article focuses on the OS/2 kernel and is based on the OS/2 Software Development Kit (SDK), first beta test release. Some features may be changed or added by the time this article is printed.
The base OS/2 kernel (low-level control process) provides the needed multitasking and related system services without requiring any other special interfaces. A user can run many applications and/or utilities concurrently.
To use OS/2, developers at most will have to learn the OS/2 API, a high-level, call-based programming interface. The API is especially useful for programming languages such as C since it is a natural function call interface. Although Microsoft is stressing the use of WPM, it is not necessary. The LAN Manager also is not a requirement. Applications can take advantage of OS/2 multitasking by simply using the plain vanilla OS/2 system.
The OS/2 SDK comes complete with an optimizing C compiler, macro assembler, and a host of other programming and operating system utilities and tools: object librarian, linker, CodeView source debugger, and full-featured window-based programmer’s editor. The WPM developer’s kit and LAN Manager software will be shipped shortly. The SDK has an array of technical manuals for system call interface specifications and device drivers.
... continue reading