[comp.graphics] MIT X Windows

dadoun@ubc-cs.UUCP (01/22/87)

I was just reading in the mainstream press (The Globe and Mail: Toronto's
National Newspaper) that a number of manufacturers (~10?) have accepted 
X Windows as a windowing 'standard'.  I believe the noticable exceptions were
IBM and Sun.  Anybody know anything else about this?

----------------------------------------------------------> Nou Dadoun

'The Truly Loyal Subject Will Not Accept nor Submit to Arbitrary Measures'

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Nou Dadoun	  	  | {ihnp4!alberta,uw-beaver}!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!dadoun
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kent@decwrl.UUCP (01/27/87)

IBM announced support for X some time ago, as I recall.

The press announcement was worded, as I recall, to the effect that these 
companies were supporting "X, *the* industry standard windowing system" 
(emphasis mine). It's unlikely that Sun would make such an announcement,
since they've been busy trying to develop their own window system for many
years now. Their stockholders might object!

(Opinions, if any, are mine, of course.)
-- 
Chris Kent	Western Research Laboratory	Digital Equipment Corporation
kent@decwrl.dec.com	decwrl!kent			(415) 853-6639

bob@primerd.UUCP (01/28/87)

What I was *really* surprised about was the mention of Adobe in that article.

I said to myself "Self, why would the keepers of Postscript support
X windows and not NeWS?"

Very strange.  Anyone have a clue?

--bob pellegrino
decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!primerd!bobsun!bob

karen@hpcvlo.UUCP (02/02/87)

I believe what Adobe announced as part of the press conference was that
they were putting PostScript on X windows.  (ie they were making a
product which was a PostScript extension for X, ie money).  Adobe has
no connection with Sun and NeWS.  Sun bought the book with the specification
and did all their own work.  Adobe gets no money out of NeWS.

Karen Helt
hp-pcd!karen

dave@viper.UUCP (02/08/87)

In article <1850001@hpcvlo.HP.COM> karen@hpcvlo.HP.COM (Karen Helt) writes:
 >Adobe has
 >no connection with Sun and NeWS.  Sun bought the book with the specification
 >and did all their own work.  Adobe gets no money out of NeWS.

According to a talk I heard last Wednesday from an employee of
Sun, NeWS uses the Adobe fonts and Sun and Adobe are probably
cooperating for extensions to PostScript.
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bob@osu-eddie.UUCP (02/09/87)

In article <499@viper.UUCP> dave@viper.UUCP (David Messer) writes:
>In article <1850001@hpcvlo.HP.COM> karen@hpcvlo.HP.COM (Karen Helt) writes:
> >Adobe has no connection with Sun and NeWS.  Sun bought the book
> >with the specification and did all their own work.  Adobe gets no
> >money out of NeWS.
>
>According to a talk I heard last Wednesday from an employee of Sun,
>NeWS uses the Adobe fonts and Sun and Adobe are probably cooperating
>for extensions to PostScript.
>

(Please notice that I am cross-posting  this to comp.windows.x because
of the Subject:, although the current discussion has diverged from X a
bit.    It  has certainly   diverged  from graphics   a bit.    Cross-
pollenation can't hurt.)

	According to a talk I heard  last Thursday from an employee of
Sun (named Bill Joy), although James  Gosling discussed his Postscript
extensions with the Adobe folks  early in SunDEW's  development, there
is no active effort within Sun to have  Adobe `certify' the extensions
as standards.

	Some of  the extensions are of course  of  interest to someone
describing printers (3-d, color), some  are not (input), and  some I'm
not sure about yet (non-blocking lightweight processes).

	The reason there  is no  active effort is this: Sun's attitude
is that  they are now  driving the  industry so  far as standards  and
development thereof is  concerned, not  only  in UNIX (in  cooperation
with   ATT) but now in  user   interfaces.  They   expect the `natural
technical and aesthetic  superiority'    (my  paraphrase of   what   I
perceived as Joy's attitude) of NeWS to shine through and convince the
entire  world  within five years.   Everyone  and  his brother  is now
implementing NFS and   maybe  Yellow Pages,  following in Sun's  lead,
after Sun implemented the initial proof-of-concept.

	So Sun  considers that they   no longer  need  to get  Adobe's
blessing for their extensions, since  Adobe is no longer (effectively)
defining the standards (from Sun's point of view).

	They also consider that they don't  need  to endorse X because
they see  X as just  one  more thing that NeWS can  do.  Joy  called X
"just RasterOp on wheels".

	I'm not sure yet whether I agree, but Bill Joy is a convincing
evangelist.  It's dangerous to go listen and talk with him - your mind
might be altered :-)
-- 
 Bob Sutterfield, Department of Computer and Information Science
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