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From: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.windows.news,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Open Windows 2.0 released (Sun press release)
Message-ID: <4057@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Date: 2 Aug 90 12:44:33 GMT
References: <11722@hoptoad.uucp> <1990Aug2.025858.14871@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au>
Sender: news@trantor.harris-atd.com
Reply-To: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
Organization: Advanced Technology Dept, Harris Corp, Melbourne, FL
Lines: 66
X-Local-Date: 2 Aug 90 05:44:33 PDT


In article <1990Aug2.025858.14871@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au>, ant@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Anthony Murdoch) writes:
> What I want to know basically is "What would OW2.0 do for us ?"  Would I be
> able to run OW/NeWS/X11 stuff on the 470 and have it displayed on an X-terminal
> or any other X-machine ?  This would be wonderfull but I am unsure from what I
> have read as to whether it is possible.  One of the things that would be really
> usefull in this case would be the ability to run SunView applications on
> remote X-terminals.

     OW 2.0 allows you to do anything you can do with a "regular" X package.
Thus, you can run applications on one machine and display their windows on a
machine running OW 2.0.  However, this only applies to X and NeWS applications.

     Since SunView is not a networked window system, you can only display
SunView apps on the machine on which they are running.  Basically, OW 2.0 gives
you all of X, all of NeWS, and all of SunView on one machine.  This is great
for us, since we are slowly migrating from SunView to X, and we don't have to
cut straight to X.  We can wean ourselves from SunView tools as X versions
become available.

> On another note, the press release mentions a new version of XView that makes
> it easy to convert current SunView stuff to X11.  How much easier ?  I fiddled
> with XView a month or so ago, and tried to convert mush to use XView.  It
> appeared to me that you would have to have about 5 years of experience in BOTH
> X11 and SunView to have a hope of converting anything (but maybe I was
> approaching the problem in the wrong way).  Has anyone managed this feat BTW,
> as I am currently using xmh and long to be able to use "Xmush".

     I don't put much faith in the XView conversion scripts, but I have heard
that some people have had success with them.  For simple SunView tools, they
probably work rather well.

     I just ported contool, my Sun console watcher, to X.  I retained the
basic appliactions code, but rebuilt the interface using GUIDE, Sun's OPEN LOOK
interface builder.  Anyone doing any development for XView needs to look at 
GUIDE.  I was able to build a base window and six dialog boxes in a just a few
hours.  Hit a button, and out comes 3,000 lines of source code.  Add your
application routines, and away you go.  And at $295 per unlimited site license,
how can you go wrong?

     I will be releasing contool in the near future, as soon as the XView
toolkit makes it to MIT.  Here is one small dilemma: where do I post it?
Comp.sources.sun, obviously, but what about comp.sources.x?  I've seen
postings apparently rejected from c.s.x for lack of an imakefile.  I don't
have an imakefile for contool, and don't know if it needs one or not.
Any advice?

> Tooltool is
> another I would love to see converted as I have this wonderfull nntool that
> I created in my old SunView days.

     Soon, when I get the time, I'll port tooltool to X.  Again, here is my
dilemma: do I retain SunView look and feel for backwards compatibility, or do
I switch to an OPEN LOOK look and feel, making new tools "correct" but 
breaking old ones?

     At least under OW 2.0, you can run old tooltool applications until I get
the port finished.

Chuck Musciano				ARPA  : chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com
Harris Corporation 			Usenet: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!chuck
PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912			AT&T  : (407) 727-6131
Melbourne, FL 32902			FAX   : (407) 727-{5118,5227,4004}

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