root@morwyn.UUCP (System Administrator) (06/26/91)
Does anyone know what NeWs is, and is it something that would apply to the 3b1?
Thanks ...
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Forrest Aldrich, Jr.| (a reliable path here someday) |forrie@morwyn.UUCP
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\___ PO Box 1541 - Dover, NH 03820 ___/ bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce D. Becker) (06/27/91)
In article <131@morwyn.UUCP> root@morwyn.UUCP (System Administrator) writes: |Does anyone know what NeWs is, and is it something that would apply to the 3b1? NeWS is a propretary product of Sun Microsystems, and is somewhat similar in functionality to MGR or X. It differs in that it is based on Sun's RPC/XDR remote procedure call/external data representation software (source is freeware), and uses an extended version of Postscript as the means of communication. The language is interactive, multi-threaded, and object-oriented - things are set up so that the local server can be programmed by the remote client so that hi-level functions can be performed on its behalf, thus potentially optimizing client-server traffic greatly. Another problem besides its proprietary nature is the relatively poor resolution of the screen, and the lack of any grey scale. This is a lesser complaint, however; the architectural concepts as a whole are what's really interesting. These could be cloned or emulated, perhaps even as an addition to MGR or something similar (thus benefitting many other venues besides the 3B1). IMHO, Sun screwed up royally w/respect to this system; It was available before X & it was architecturally superior (they actually implemented an X server in Postscript as a demo). Had they made it into freeware, the entire history of unix windows may well have gone another way. I'd even venture to surmise that the politics surrounding AT&T's using Sun for System V Release 4 would have been different as well, and that OSF might well have been nowhere near as politically viable a concept as it actually later became. -- ,u, Bruce Becker Toronto, Ontario a /i/ Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu `\o\-e UUCP: ...!utai!mnetor!becker!bdb _< /_ "Ferget yer humanity, do the poot" - devo