leff@smu.CSNET (Laurence Leff) (09/08/87)
First Impressions of NeWS
William Roberts
Mel Slater
Kieron Drake
Antony Simmins
Allan Davison
Department of Computer Science
Queen Mary College
190 Mile End Road
LONDON E1 4NS
Peter Williams
QMC Interactive Systems Ltd
229 Mile End Road
LONDON E1 4NS
ABSTRACT
The SUN Microsystems Network Extensible Win-
dow System (NeWS) is a display system that uses
the PostScript page description language to pro-
vide fully device independent screen and input
manipulation as a network service. This system has
been available in the UK as a beta test product
since April 1987 and this paper reports the work
done with NeWS at Queen Mary College. A general
introduction to NeWS is given, together with some
more detailed information and reports of what each
author has been doing with the system. We will
try to predict the future of NeWS and its main
rival (the MIT X-Windows system) and to suggest
changes to the NeWS beta product that will be
necessary for it to realise its potential.
Keywords: NeWS, PostScript, workstation, window
systems, device independence, graphics, X-windows
August 1987 - 25 pages
-------------------------------------------------------------
This paper can be obtained free of charge by writing to
Sue White
Research Coordinator
Department of Computer Science
Queen Mary College
190 Mile End Road
LONDON E1 4NS
ENGLAND
or sending e-mail to suew@qmc-cs.UUCP.