Newsgroups: comp.realtime,comp.os.qnx,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.robotics
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!newsflash.concordia.ca!canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca!mona.muug.mb.ca!rgallen
From: rgallen@muug.mb.ca (Rennie Allen)
Subject: Re: Real-time systems: Windows-NT or QNX
Message-ID: <1994Oct17.135322.26057@muug.mb.ca>
Organization: Manitoba Unix User Group, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
References: <FriOct14102309EST1994@eric> <GRGTBM6Q@gwdu03.gwdg.de> <37mt1a$5vt@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <brianvm.13.00CD4BEE@halcyon.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 13:53:22 GMT
Lines: 47
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.realtime:7184 comp.os.qnx:2237 comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:40619 comp.robotics:14447

In <brianvm.13.00CD4BEE@halcyon.com> brianvm@halcyon.com (Brian Van Mondfrans) writes:

>I have written several programs for Windows and Windows NT.  I absolutely love 
>Windows NT 3.5 and it is the most stable version of Windows I have ever seen.  
>Trust me, I blown every version of Windows in every way possible, except for 
>3.5.

I agree.

>But to answer the question on Real-Time systems with it I would have to say 
>not easily or not a chance at all.  NT is primarily oriented towards 
>networking not real-time processing.  You could probably do it if you had a 
>lot of experience in writing drivers for NT, but it is not easy to do.  I 
>don't have experience with drivers, but I have looked at driver source code.

I agree here also...

>I have never used QNX so I can't make any recommendation there.  I would 
>however look at using DOS or UNIX, for you UNIX fans out there.  I know that 
>the wonderful graphics interface is not there, but the tools for creating your 
>own are readily available.

I have used QNX (for almost 7 years) and I *can* recommend it.  As for
graphical interfaces there are more options with QNX than on any other
OS I know of (remember I have NT on my desk).  There are even a lot of good
builder tools, some QNX based, some Unix based that output C/C++ for
recompilation under QNX/X.

>So it comes down to this, are you willing to spend a lot of time writing 
>drivers for NT or writing the graphics interface for DOS or UNIX.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to write any *real* code on NT.  NT is a 
beautiful development platform (as long as you don't develop *for* NT).  I have
done lot's of GUI work on QNX (QNX Windows) and in terms of ease of programming
I don't think it get's too much easier (although it could be more feature rich).

>I would be interested to hear from anyone who has done real-time processing 
>with Windows as I am interested in doing it too.

Sorry, but I take my own advice, maybe you should listen to your own arguments
too....:-) 


email: rgallen@muug.mb.ca
QUICS: rgallen (613) 591-0934
Voice: (204) 367-2311       
Fax:   (204) 367-4407
