grob@chorus.fr (Lori Grob) (02/01/91)
The following are the results of the contest at the Dallas Usenix.
The contest was to name features that you would like to see in a window
system. The rules of the contest (such as they were) were not
interpreted strictly.
Some entries came up again and again:
windex - cleans all you windows at once
the boss window manager - at the approach of your management
your tetris game/rogue/news ... changes into
an icon marked overtime
patriot window features
scud window features
And Honarable Honarable mention to Henry Spencer who wanted a feature
that would let him delete the features that he didn't want and reclaim
the memory.
The following entries won Honorable Mention:
Pavolovian Response Windowing: If a mouse button is depressed in an area
of the screen that is not valid, an electric shock** will be given
to the user via the mouse. This allows for a quicker learning
curve.
**Requires hardware modification
by Evan Marks
Benchmark Mode Window Decoration: The designated window suddenly appears
more impressive than any other window on the screen. Causes confusion
when applied to multiple windows simultaneously.
Uniforum Mode Window Enlargement: Doubles the size of the indicated window
but halves the information content.
by J. Schwab
An interactive C compiler with digitized sounds of Evi Nemeth's (Usenix
Board member and Professor) voice. If ever someone type's an obvious mistake
while editing a .c file, her voice will sound and laugh at you
by Brent Cromley
4D option: by analogy to the 3-D look of buttons in NeXtstep and Motif
This option puts your workstationm into hyperspace. This allows
you to display results before they are computed.
by Eric Allman
Visual Focus: I was LOOKING at THAT window **** that's where I wanted
my input to GO! (Now how do I tell vi to "undo everything I did in
the last 10 seconds?")
by Dan Klein
The bad pun award to Evan Leibovitch for the following:
An icon depiction of Sally Field: The Gidget Widget
3rd place to Rick Sabourin for:
MWM: the manager window manager. It intelligently reconfigures itself
to the ineptitude of the user. In an emergency, it kills all
windows and runs a Lotus emulator.
2nd place to Brent Cromley (a young man who obviously spent all his time
at the conference entering contests and hiding from his programming
professors) for:
An animated screen saver that displays several frames of Rob Kolstad (Usenix
Board member and moderator of the systems administration panel sessions)
dancing in a tutu.
1st prize to Ben Fried and Mark Kennedy for the following 6 entries
(sorted from good to best)
PWM: The Pencom Window Manager- Flirts with you until you actually start
using it.
DBWM: Dan Bernstein's Window Manager Argues for 10 weeks before resizing your
window.
ASPWM: Alt.sex.pictures window manager icons your mother never told
you about.
AWM: Allman's window manager - A little cryptic but functional and we just
love that secret debug feature.
SunWM Seperately sold components to iconify, move, resize, put up menus...
Unbundled means more freedom for customers.
CMUWM: Not a window manager, just a place holder for the one you can buy
from OSF or TransArc.
Lori S. Grob
Chorus syste`mes
6 avenue Gustave Eiffel phone +33-1-30-64-82-17
F78182 Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines fax +33-1-30-57-00-66
FRANCE
email grob@chorus.fr
grob%chorus.fr@uunet.uu.net