marilyn@erika.UUCP (Marilyn Kilinski) (01/10/89)
To: NeWS-makers@brillig.umd.edu From: rutgers!unipress!pookie (Marilyn R. Kilinski) Subject: SUG NeWS SIG Minutes NeWS SIG Minutes ================ WHAT: 2nd NeWS Special Interest Group Meeting, sponsored by UniPress Software WHERE: 6th Annual Sun User Group Conference, Miami Beach, Florida WHEN: Tuesday, 6 December, 2:30-4:30 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: Marilyn R. Kilinski, NeWS SIG Secretary-by-Default, UniPress WHAT HAPPENED: The SIG convened at about 2:30 p.m. Approximately 130 people showed up for the SIG. Representing Sun, Steve Messino (Corporate Marketing - NeWS) and Bruce Schwartz (Technical Services) participated in the SIG; Tony Hoeber (OPENLOOK Product Manager) was also in attendance. Marilyn Kilinski from UniPress welcomed the group; speakers were as follows: Mark Krieger, President of UniPress Software, gave a presentation on C2PS, UniPress' new C-to-PostScript compiler. Don Hopkins, University of Maryland, talked about NeWS-makers, the discussion group he moderates on the net, and the SUG software exchange tape. Hugh Daniel, Grasshopper Group, spoke about MacNews, which is NeWS for Mac IIs running A/UX. Rich Morin stood up and went off on a SCSI tangent. He was shushed by Saul Wold (Sun Micro ;=) Maurice Balick, ArchiTec, discussed his company's product, OS/2 NeWS. Steve Messino introduced himself to the group and indicated he would field questions later in the SIG. Bruce Schwartz gave a presentation on NeWS Draw, a NeWS draw program he had written, and NeWS-on-Wire (NeWS running over serial lines). A Q&A/discussion period then began, which lasted for an hour or so. Topics included: * Establishing NeWS more firmly by making it a window system that runs on many machines and operating systems. These included Amiga, Mac, MS-DOS, NeXT. Also, the idea of NeWS on an Amiga with an IBM mainframe client. * NeWS Development Environment (NDE) Toolkit source will be available to licensees, said Steve Messino. * Transputer-based workstations are a big thing in the U.K.; this should be considered for NeWS ports. * Questions/comments for Steve Messino (smessino@sun.com, 415/336-2017) * NeWS needs to be better promoted by Sun's PR department; there are a few technical articles about it, but never any news items in the UNIX trade press. X is much more visible. * Unbundle NeWS and make it free! (It will be on the AT&T Sys. V.4 tape, replied Steve.) * Steve said the NeWS community needs to produce as many ports of/applications running under NeWS as possible. His three main points were: - Sun will work w/developers to jointly market their NeWS products. - Leveraging staff and resources at Sun. - We need more NeWS applications! * Release date for X11/NeWS merge is 28 July 1989. Release date for NDE Toolkit is Fall 1989. Other group discussion topics: * Has anyone thought about an X-to-NeWS compiler? * There aren't any development tools for NeWS! (Sun is interested is getting such tools from outside sources, said Steve.) * Political problems remain - X remains the windowing environment of choice, so it's hard to make a good business decision by going w/NeWS. * How NeWS fits into the business scheme of things - developers and consultants spoke of their experience w/trying to sell NeWS-based solutions to clients. * Two big problems from developers' point of view: lack of PR for NeWS, and NDE Toolkit's thrice-delayed Fall 89 availability (too late). * Getting NeWS represented in the standards world - can we get this to happen? * Piggybacking NeWS onto OPENLOOK as the development environment? Meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m. so we could go downstairs and listen to Bill Joy. SUBJECTIVE SUMMARY: Last year, NeWS was very new, and much of the group discussion centered on improving NeWS technically. This year, business issues (Sun backing NeWS better and how developers can succeed with NeWS-based products) were the subject of much lively exchange. NEXT MEETING: The NeWS SIG will meet again at the 7th Annual Sun User Group Conference in Anaheim, December 1989. -- Marilyn R. Kilinski, UniPress Software 23 December 1988
rdm@cfcl.UUCP (Rich Morin) (01/10/89)
I feel that I must respond to Marilyn's analysis of my NeWS BOF presentation: > Rich Morin stood up and went off on a SCSI tangent. He was shushed by Saul > Wold (Sun Micro ;=) I was introduced at the BOF by Hugh Daniel, of Grasshopper Group. This was not accidental - I have been working closely with the Grasshopper Group for the past several months. Hugh and I share a vision of NeWS as a mechanism for controlling and linking a wide variety of useful I/O devices. My own contribution, /dev/scsi, allows user-mode programs to talk to arbitrary SCSI devices. We have already printed NeWS images on an Apple LaserWriter II SC, and have also sent NeWS images successfully to a Mirus FilmPrinter. Future software will support the Apple Scanner and the General Computer Personal LaserPrinter. We feel that this sort of I/O capability enhances the utility of NeWS and empowers NeWS users. I may not have been clear on the relationship between NeWS and /dev/scsi. I depended somewhat on the background information in Hugh's introduction, and so the focus of my own presentation may not have been clear. Certainly Saul and Marilyn failed to see the connection. Others probably did, as well. In any event, my already short presentation (less than three minutes) was indeed shortened further in response to Saul's remarks. Persons wishing to know more about /dev/scsi are invited to attend the planned BOF at Usenix in San Diego. P.S. In contrast to the presentations made by UniPress and some other firms, my /dev/scsi presentation made no attempt to sell product. Indeed, /dev/scsi will be freely redistributable, since we would like it to be accepted as a standard. ;-} -- _ o _ |_ _ _ _ _ o _ Canta Forda Computer Laboratory | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UNIX software consulting and training | | |_ | | | | | |_| | | | | {hoptoad,pacbell}!cfcl!rdm +1 415 873 7841