Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!bionet!arisia!roo!janssen From: janssen@parc.xerox.com (Bill Janssen) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: X marks the suit Message-ID: Date: 6 Aug 90 03:03:29 GMT References: <9008031720.AA08100@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> <9008040324.AA08838@efbhp1.draper.com> <24334@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Sender: news@parc.xerox.com Organization: Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 25 In-reply-to: montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com's message of 4 Aug 90 17:32:52 GMT In article montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) writes: How do the vtwm and swm virtual destops compare to the xrooms program that was posted in the last year? In fact, Stu Card has mentioned to me that "Big Rooms" was one of the things he and Austin Henderson tried (and rejected, for reasons I don't remember) while working out the theories behind Xerox Rooms. "Big Rooms" was a large flat 2D surface on which all your "engaged tools" could be laid out. Your screen gave a clipped view of the surface, and could be panned around to different clusters of tools. This is pretty much what vtwm and the commercial release of swm provide. Xerox Rooms, of course, provides a set of different spaces, each populated with a set of engaged tools specific to the task being performed in that space. An Overview facility allows one to inspect, edit, and traverse all of the spaces. Session management for automatic saving and restoration of state is built in. Rooms "Suites" allow sets of tasks to be saved and traded between users. Bill -- Bill Janssen janssen@parc.xerox.com (415) 494-4763 Xerox Palo Alto Research Center 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304