page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) (03/18/86)
First, a pseudo-reply: In article <1664@decwrl.DEC.COM> praetorius@vaxwrk.DEC writes: > Does anybody out there (from MIT, especially) know anything about a >windowing package called X that's come out of Project Athena? Isn't that what DEC used on its Vaxstation-II/GPX ? * * * Now, a request. All of the good developers want to encourage uniformity, right? Look at IFF for pictures, IFF for music & sound. Look at Intuition, where right mouse button means menu and left mouse button means pick, menus are pull-down, system gadgets are always in the same place, etc. Of course you may violate this rule (TextCraft is a prime example), but it makes your program harder for the user to use. With that in mind, I suggest that all applications that open a custom window (on any screen) start two lines down from the top of the screen. Yes, I know that only leaves you with 198/398 lines to play in, but the advantage is that the user can go to the top of the display and pull the screen down, without resizing the window and dragging it first. This is especially critical if you don't provide a sizing gadget and your window fills the screen. This may not sound like much *today*, since many people use the Workbench screen. But it will not always be that way! A few years from now everyone will have custom screens for their custom windows, and we'll be moving through screens. Plan ahead, is what I'm saying. Also note that ALT-N (or M? I can never remember) to bring the WB screen to the front/back does just that...works on the WB screen only. It also FLIPS (depth-arranges) the screen, so you can't have two at once on the display. I'd like to hear feedback on this proposal. As an aside - is there an Intuition-blessed method for the *user* to depth-arrange screens (assuming more than one custom screen)? If so, what is it? If not, why isn't there? ..Bob -- UUCP: wanginst!ulowell!page Bob Page ARPA: page@ulowell.CSNET U of Lowell CS Dept VOX: +1 617 452 5000 x2233 Lowell MA 01854 USA
treese@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Win Treese) (03/21/86)
In article <1664@decwrl.DEC.COM> praetorius@vaxwrk.DEC writes: > Does anybody out there (from MIT, especially) know anything about a >windowing package called X that's come out of Project Athena? The X window system is available from MIT Project Athena for a nominal $100 processing fee. To get a copy, send electronic mail to "xrequest@athena.MIT.EDU", or US Snail to X Requests MIT Project Athena 1 Amherst St. Cambridge, MA 02139 It comes with full source. It is also available from DEC with Ultrix for the Vs100, VAXstation2, and GPX workstation. There is also support for SUN workstations and will soon be support for the IBM PC/RT. The X window system itself is not really suitable for the Amiga. Client programs use TCP connections to talk to a display server that handles the display. What might be interesting, however, is an X library interface to the Amiga's window system. By the way, X is being discussed as a possible window system standard. Win Treese System Release Engineer MIT Project Athena ARPA: treese@athena.MIT.EDU UUCP: ...!decvax!mit-eddie!mit-athena!treese