Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!husc6!cfa!ward
From: ward@cfa.harvard.EDU (Steve Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Breaking the 640K Barrier
Summary: PC-DOS 3.4 with major additions seems VERY likely...
Message-ID: <839@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU>
Date: 13 Dec 87 20:10:53 GMT
References: <3116@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <45900094@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. for Astrophysics
Lines: 30

In article <45900094@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>, zinzow@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> Regarding Dos 3.4, it is certainly strange to hear all these conflicting
> reports.  I would guess that the IBM Dos 3.3 Tech Ref. is the last because
> no more fundamental changes are going into Dos with OS/2 out now.  However,
> the official (at least according to ASKINFO, IBM's tech. support) word is
> that there will be another release of Dos to fix some of the bugs in 3.3.
> Perhaps it will only be another update, probably 3.31 or something.


Actually, version 3.4 looks very likely and will have Desqview-like
expanded memory and limited multitasking support.  Rumor has it that the
Desqview product popularity and excellent functionality has forced 
Microsoft to come out with these additions themselves.  For a more
specific idea of what these additions will be, get a Desqview product
brochure.

Basically, via EMS4.0 memory, the added DOS features will support task
swapping and memory swapping so that multiple programs can be memory
resident within a much larger memory space and so that existing programs
that are memory hogs (CAD/CAE, for example) will have huge memory
available, all transparent to programs, meaning all existing
applications
should take advantage of the new features transparently, without program
changes -- the programs will not have to know anything about the
extended memory.

Time will tell, as all of this is rumor, but I have seen it all quoted
from Microsoft sources in print several times.  Of course, Shirley
McClaine gets a lot of print, too. :-)