Microsoft Sets Plans For Future Programs

By David Coursey
MIS Week

March 6, 1989

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft Corp. has announced plans for new versions of OS/2 and LAN Manager designed to exploit the capabilities of the 80386 processor, as well as a new installable file system for OS/2 and the addition of object-oriented capabilities to OS/2 and Windows.

The company also said it plans to make OS/2 portable to new platforms, even though the operating system will still be primarily bound to the Intel Corp. processor architecture.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said a version of OS/2 tailored for the 80386 will be available next year with a tool kit, for developers, and be shipped before the end of 1989.

But even before the 80386 release, Microsoft plans a 1989 update to 80286 OS/2 that will include a new high-performance file system. Gates said the file structure will allow third parties to add new filing structures of their own and to file names up to 254 characters in length.

Users will find the change of length the most immediately noticeable difference between the new and old filing system, which now limits file names to eight characters followed by a three-character extension.

Other changes will be more subtle, but just as significant, Gates said. Among them is an expanded structure of file attributes, which may include author, application type, and history information.

Gates said utilities will be available in later releases that will allow the extended attributes to be used as a database of sorts, permitting, for example, files to be searched by author name or date of creation. The new attributes may replace some document summary features currently found in word processing applications.

Companies such as Novell Inc. and the CD-ROM industry will be able to install own file systems in place of the one used by OS/2. Microsoft Vice President Steve Ballmer said information needed to develop alternative file systems would be provided to those vendors requesting it.

Microsoft made the announcements Feb. 23 and 24 during a meeting with analysts and reporters held at the company's headquarters here. The company used the annual Systems Software Seminar as a forum for outlining its direction in several areas (see related stories, pages 21 and 25).

Also during the meeting, an International Business Machines Corp. executive said his company is considering actions to broaden support among PC-compatible vendors for its OS/2 Extended Edition.

Lee Reiswig, director of software strategy for IBM's entry systems division, said several third-party vendors have announced their support for Extended Edition and that IBM is considering moves to improve that support. Reiswig declined to offer specific details.

Object-Oriented Tools

Greg Whitten, Microsoft systems software architect, told of plans for a collection of object-oriented facilities and tools intended to make OS/2 easier to learn and, for developers, to work under.

Unlike traditional line-by-line programming, object-oriented programs are constructed from building blocks of microcode that can be reused and modified as desired.

In the user environment, objects refer to a system under which both files and hardware are treated as individual entities. For example, a document might be printed by using a mouse to drag an object representing the file to an object representing to printer.

The new OS/2 filing system would represent files as objects containing both the data and the information about actions the file requires, such as starting a particular applications.

Compound documents, created by merging data from different types of applications, would be another creature of the new filing system. A compound document containing word processing and database information would be editable under the word processor, but still be able to interact with the database, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft said it will create a variety of object-oriented programming tools, including a new version of the Basic and C languages, but refused to specify release dates.

The new version of OS/2 for the 80386 will take advantage of the processor's 32-bit data path and multitasking capabilities, Gates said. Current releases of the operating system, which were designed for the 80286, have a 16-bit data path and do not support running more than one application at a time.

Microsoft said the next release of Windows/386 will have a simplified installation procedure and new proportional on-screen fonts, which are said to be easier to red.

The company also reiterated a number of recent announcements and position statements, including its plans for a common user interface across the OS/2, Windows, Unix and Macintosh environments.