mayer@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Niels Mayer) (08/26/87)
In article <450@cimcor.UUCP> mike@cimcor.UUCP (Michael Grenier) writes: >How about a public domain implementation of curses on top of termcap >so one wouldn't always have to write to the lowest common denominator. >Steve Jobs is probably right in saying that some common windowing and graphics >interface is desperately needed for UNIX if it is going to maintain itself >against the OS/2s and Macs in this world ( at least in that range of hardware). >Curses isn't that answer, of course. I think Steve Jobs meant that we should stop worrying about supporting archaic modes of interaction (the terminal) and get on to supporting modern bitmapped displays and the graphical/iconic modes of interaction that such hardware can support. X windows seems to be the current unix-trend in this direction, and may prove to be the low-level portion of a "common windowing and graphics interface" that will make UNIX "maintain itself against the OS//2s and Macs in this world". The MacApp toolkit of the X windows world has unfortunately not yet been built, although the Xray (HP), Xtools (DEC), and sX (UC Berkeley) toolkits are certainly a step in that direction. -- Niels Mayer. HP Labs.