OS/2 vs Win3.1

Allison wrote: I don't know anything about Concurrent386, but comparing OS/2 Warp with win 3.1 is like comparing pigs with streetlights. Win3.1 is a graphical shell around DOS. To overcome DOS' memory limitations is uses some more advanced techniques of the processor, such as protected mode. However, win3.1 programs are 16-bit. Win3.1 itself is 16 bit. Win 3.1 only allows cooperative multitasking. That means that a another program can only get control if the running program gives it up. This is a very short summery of Win3.1 OS/2 2.0 and higher are 32-bit operating systems. However, compatibility with older OS/2 applications was considered very important and therefore parts of the kernel and all device drivers are mainly 16 bit. Only recently some 32-bit device drivers were written. OS/2 has its own graphical subsystem - a very advanced one. It can run DOS programs in 'virtual dos machines' or VDM. A special mode of the 386 processor allows a task to act as if it where a real mode task. Anything that task does can trap the processor and thus can be handled by exception handlers. OS/2 is very strong is this area. OS/2 has its own file system with some special features like "extended attributes". OS/2 has dynamic priorities for tasks, that makes it more responsive. For example, a task that has focus in the GUI is slightly raised in priority. Or when a background task was blocking for something it might receive a slight priority boost when that something becomes available. OS/2's time critical priority is handled "soft realtime". I've used OS/2 in the past for process control, dosing in particular. For such applications realtime behaviour is very important as a lattency of 1 sec or more is disasterous for the product being manufactered. I can go on and on, but if you want to know more let me know and I write it down later on. Regards, Bert