Winloc 3.1 Turn your PC into an MS-Windows workstation for the VS
From "VS Workshop",  Access to Wang, April 1993
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Just a few years ago, it was uncommon to find Wang users using Microsoft's Windows environment in combination with VS terminal emulation. PC users kept their applications separate, often turning from a Wang terminal to a PC to rekey data retrieved from VS applications. Wang's DOS-based terminal emulation software for PCs - the Wang Local Office Connection (WLOC) - functioned poorly in the Windows environment, but the real problem was that there was no great reason to combine it with these PC applications.

The release of Windows 3.0 several years ago and subsequent interest in the Windows environment have altered that vision. As software developers and end users have developed a liking for Windows and the products that rely on it, many have combined these PC-related tasks with VS terminal emulation. If you are a Windows user or support Windows users, Wang's Windows terminal emulation software - Winloc - provides unique features that make it worth evaluating as an alternative to Wang terminals, asynchronous terminal emulators, or the DOS-based emulation products.

Advantages of the VS Windows workstation

What does a Windows VS terminal offer that a regular terminal cannot? Easier use of VS applications, for starters. As with most other Windows applications, text can be cut and pasted from a Winloc session to other applications. For example, you can copy the contents of a spreadsheet cell and paste it into a field in a VS screen. Likewise, the VS screen image can be copied into a word processing program for documentation or user training.

A unique aspect of Winloc is its ability to use a mouse and text on the screen as a substitute for keyboard activity. By pointing at the labels on a VS screen and pressing the left mouse button, any PF key and many other marked keys can be simulated. This allows most VS applications to have "point and shoot" capability without any redesign. The mouse also allows the cursor to be placed rapidly anywhere on the screen. If your PC uses a standard PC keyboard rather than a Wang keyboard, Winloc will ease the burden of learning new function key combinations.

In Enhanced Mode, the Windows environment allows several tasks to be active at once, and Winloc users can take full advantage of this feature. VS terminal sessions can be suspended to perform other work, then resumed instantly when needed. If you use PC-based word processing and electronic mail software, it is easy to set aside the terminal session to attend to these applications as needed.

Like other Windows applications, Winloc screens can be shrunk or enlarged (resized) as needed. The VS session remains active and screen activity can be seen on any portion of the screen that shows. I often use this approach to compose email messages while reviewing the contents of a VS screen to the side, and program documentation is easier when the application is visible as I write.

Message alerts are another unique Winloc feature. This option causes the Winloc icon to blink whenever the VS screen changes, optionally displaying a small portion of the screen's text and sounding the bell (beep). This allows the user to monitor a long process and review its progress without dedicating a terminal to the task.

Finally, Winloc users benefit from a common environment, with control over screen colors and size, most keyboard functions, and standard control for printers and other peripherals. The graphical screen presentation allows the VS screen to show true underlines - a necessity for clarity in many Wang applications and not possible with DOS-based applications - and the screen color and application sizing can be varied according to personal preferences.

Disadvantages of Windows

As good as all this sounds, there are some disadvantages to the VS Windows terminal concept. The most apparent problem is the clarity of color monitors: it is simply not practical to get the same level of clarity on a color PC monitor as you expected on your old Wang terminal, and most color combinations are not as sharp as the bright green letters on a black background found on your old 2256C.

Winloc also suffers from the limitations of the WLOC terminal emulation board it depends on. WLOC boards require Conventional (DOS) memory dedicated to their use - 64K bytes worth - making it difficult to optimize memory for other applications. By removing a relatively large chunk of memory from use, WLOC boards fracture remaining space, making even the best memory management software deliver a smaller amount of usable Conventional memory. (Windows applications rely on Extended rather than Conventional memory, so this is less of an issue for Windows than DOS applications.)

Winloc is also an unusual Windows application in that it cannot use some application control keys common to other Windows programs due to the needs of the terminal emulation task itself. For example, the key combination that produces PF14 is the ALT key plus PF4; in other Windows applications this combination closes the program immediately without warning. In contrast, Winloc uses a menu pick to perform this closing application and asks the user to confirm the selection before actually closing the program. This difference of operation will be confusing to the seasoned Windows user.

Features of Winloc 3.1

Winloc version 3.1 is the latest in the series of Wang Windows terminal emulation software. On the street since early last year, Winloc 3.1 offers several important enhancements to prior versions. Most important of these is the ability to run multiple copies (instances) of the software when there are multiple VS Multistation windows available. This feature allows each defined VS window to be contained within a single Windows frame and managed independently. Individual sessions may even be launched separately as needed. This is a fantastic improvement over running Multistation on a Wang terminal, when a single screen is shown and key combinations must be pressed to see any other screens associated with that terminal.

(The idea of separate frames for each VS window is not new: users of classic Wang PCs will recall the small window size of PC Multistation, a Wang product which offered separate frames for each VS session but allowed no control over their size or appearance. Some may also recall the early Wang Windows PC Multistation product that required Real mode Windows operation, negating the multitasking benefits of Windows.)

At least as impressive is the on-line setup offered by this version. Previously, setting up Winloc involved modification of the critical Windows configuration file WIN.INI to set options and define hardware choices. This has been replaced with an excellent installation tool and the ability to make these changes from a menu entry within the application.

Release 3.1 also supports auto-sizing, which allows the screen area to be expanded or reduced as needed, with the characters on the screen varying in size to allow most or all of the screen to be visible. Using this feature, it is possible to reduce a screen to nearly the size of a stamp and place it in the corner, enlarging it to full size with two clicks of the mouse button.

Other enhancements include some new features and better integration with Windows, including support for all three Windows modes - Real, Standard, or Enhanced. Screen snapshots have been added, allowing up to five screens to be saved, reviewed, and sent to other applications as desired. There are better hardware controls, including some that slow down the program's screen refresh to make up for slower PCs. In short, a solid product release.

Winloc 3.1 requires an IBM-compatible PC with one megabyte memory, a supported display card and monitor (typically VGA), a Wang Local Office Connection board, MS-DOS 3.3 or greater, a suitable mouse, and Windows 3.0 or greater. VS requirements include Operating System 7.21.00 or greater, VS Multistation 7.00.00 microcode or greater, and a suitable Wang serial (928) connection (coaxial or twisted-pair cable).

Wish list

My primary suggestions for improvement include support for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and a better selection of large fonts.

DDE is to Windows what GETPARMs are to the VS: a standard means of communicating between programs and the glue that holds applications together. DDE allows powerful connections between Windows applications - connections that grant unidirectional or bidirectional data transfer in real time. Supporting DDE access would allow an impressive range of integration options between VS and PC applications.

The largest font supplied with Winloc 3.1 still looks small on my workstation - partially due to the fact that I run a screen resolution of 800 by 600, rather than the usual 640 by 480 to get more screen area for development. Stepping up to the next level of resolution - 1024 by 768 - is unthinkable. Set up with the largest font, the largest Winloc screen only covers two-thirds of the workstation's width.

As you can see, Windows and the VS can be a powerful combination.