mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau) (03/08/89)
According to a recent issue of Unix Today, Scott McNealy said in San Francisco -- at Uniforum, I assume -- that Sun would be *giving* the XView toolkit to "MIT" (which I assume means the X Consortium) for inclusion in the next release of X11. This sounds like exactly the Right Thing To Do. Would anyone from Sun or the Consortium care to confirm that this is actually happening? It just sounds too reasonable to be true, given the politics of Window Wars :-)
rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (03/08/89)
I have not seen the actual press release, but Sun did discuss this with me before the release came out, and yes, my understanding is that Sun will be giving XView sources to MIT for inclusion in our (R4) distribution. I do not believe any particular date has been set for this. Should we receive the sources long before R4, we will make them available on the net.
greg%irad_sun1@ETN-WLV.EATON.COM (Greg Christy) (03/10/89)
I received the following from our Sun sales rep. I thought it might be of interest. - -------- SUN UNVEILS COMPREHENSIVE USER INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Introduces New XView Toolkit, Suite of Desktop Productivity Applications SAN FRANCISCO February 28, 1989 At UniForum '89 being held here, Sun Microsystems today unveiled a migration path to the OPEN LOOK TM graphical user interface and X11 window standard. Sun's solution is called OpenWindows TM , an application environment that includes OPEN LOOK, X11/NeWS and the new XView TM toolkit, introduced today. XView is the next generation of the SunView TM toolkit, available since 1985. XView implements OPEN LOOK on X11. The nearly 1,000 developers who have released more than 2,100 applications on SunView now have an easy way of bringing their applications to OPEN LOOK and X11 without re-implementation. Sun also introduced a suite of desktop productivity applications called SunWrite TM , SunPaint TM and SunDraw TM that are based on the OPEN LOOK specification. These tools give users a low-cost, window-based solution for easily preparing WYSIWYG documents on a workstation. OpenWindows Utilizes Existing Software This simple, consistent graphical user interface was developed by Sun and AT&T under license from Xerox. It has already been endorsed by more than 100 independent software vendors, many of whom have started porting applications to it. Sun's new XView toolkit will enable developers to create applications that use the OPEN LOOK specification. XView gives the OpenWindows environment a major advantage over other X-based solutions, which will initially lack a large number of applications. Sun is providing XView to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for release as part of its X source code tape. Thus XView will be available without restriction so that applications can meet the OPEN LOOK specification. OpenWindows demonstrates Sun's commitment to serve the X community by delivering a stable, mature toolkit and a powerful, full-featured window system. X11/NeWS strongly supports both MIT's X11 windowing protocol and the PostScript TM language technology built into NeWS. There are now 66 licensees of NeWS. "We believe the OpenWindows strategy is the best way to enhance our customers' existing investments in Sun windowing technology while still supporting industry standards," said Scott McNealy, president and CEO of Sun. "One of our goals is to ensure that a truly open windowing solution is available to everyone," he added. Also announced today were efforts to produce specifications for Kanji features for OPEN LOOK and a Kanji version of XView. Sun is working with several leading Japanese computer vendors to this end. Availability Specifications of the OpenWindows technology are freely available now, including OPEN LOOK, XView and X11/NeWS documentation. A limited number of evaluation copies of OpenWindows are available now, a release to developers will occur in the spring, and full availability is scheduled for July, 1989. New Productivity Tools Demonstrate OPEN LOOK SunWrite, SunPaint and SunDraw are early examples of products based on the OPEN LOOK specification. They enhance workstation functionality by enabling users to create documents within windows on their screen while also running compute-intensive engineering or scientific applications. This eliminates any need for purchasing a personal computer for desktop productivity applications. Offering the same look and feel, SunWrite, SunPaint and SunDraw are user friendly, with common menus, pop-up windows and point-and-click mouse controls. These modular productivity tools allow files to be imported between all three applications in different windows. Text and images can also be saved to a common clipboard and then integrated into documents later. Information from other applications can be captured and pasted into a document being produced in SunWrite, SunPaint or SunDraw. The applications support any PostScript output device. Pricing and Availability SunWrite, SunPaint and SunDraw are based on core technology developed by Island Graphics Corp. of San Rafael, Calif. These products will be sold through Sun's direct sales force. SunWrite is priced at $695, while SunPaint and SunDraw are each priced at $495. The three packages can be purchased together for $995. Volume discounts are available. Sun's new suite of desktop tools runs on: the 680x0-based Sun-3 TM ; the Sun386i TM , which utilizes the 80386 microprocessor and runs both UNIX and DOS applications; and the SPARC TM -based Sun-4 TM . Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is one of the world's leading suppliers of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. Press Contact: Cathleen Beall Garfield (415) 336-6536 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Christy email: greg%irad_sun1@etn-wlv.eaton.com Contel Federal Systems phone: (818) 706-4307 31717 La Tienda Drive Westlake Village, CA 91359 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------