mo@uunet.UU.NET (Mike O'Dell) (02/06/88)
The problem with any window system (SUNview or X, ferinstance) which does pixels is that it knows the screen resolution. This means that if you develop a nice interface on a SUN 3/160, but are going to deliver it on a SUN 3/260, SURPRISE!!! When you bring it up on the 260, YOU CAN'T READ THE SCREEN because the pixels shrunk 30%!! This is particularly painful with fonts. With NeWS, this DOESN'T HAPPEN because you never deal with screen resolution - you represent how big you want it to really be. If the server changes resolution, NOTHING BREAKS. As a person who makes a living building systems which get shipped to end-users, this kind of crap makes life difficult. I would like my programmers to be able to work on building the systems without having to give them the same hardware it's going to run on. But I guess in other worlds, everyone uses the same hardware and noone cares about whether software really works when moved to a different environment. Note that I did NOT say "can be made to work with sufficient screwing around." I said "works" - out of the box, unmodified, on color or b&w, at 72, 80, 100, 120, 200, or 300 dpi monitors (yes, kiddies, t here are 300 dpi monitors in the world). So, if these pixel-based systems ever evolve enough device independence to cope with the world as it is, let me know. Until then, pass the Postscript. -Mike O'Dell