Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!mephisto!prism!dali!ken
From: ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.msdos
Subject: Re: uucp and other unix stuff on a pc
Summary: layers ain't so great...
Message-ID: <13345@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 5 Sep 90 01:59:47 GMT
References: <13111@netcom.UUCP> <1990Sep4.172707.434@eci386.uucp>
Sender: news@prism.gatech.EDU
Reply-To: ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii)
Organization: The House Of Fun
Lines: 35

In article <1990Sep4.172707.434@eci386.uucp> woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) writes:
>
>However, the best solution, especially for those limited by slower
>communications lines, is layers, also known as the SysV Windowing
>System.  This very elegant system has been in use by AT&T on various
>"smart" terminals (jerq, blit, 5620-DMD, 615, 630, 705, 730, etc.) for
>quite a few years.  It comes standard (as an operating environment) on
>all true System V ports (some vendors, such as ISC did not provide
>layers).  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the IBM-PC version of
>layers ever made it out of the Labs.
>

Watch telling this to a Georgia Tech person.  When I got here (circa
1985), this place was flooded with 5620's.  When they weren't dropping
like flies from hardware problems, they were little more than a big
pain in the butt to programme (and I do X for a living).  Robert Vidua
did some interesting things with them, but few others did (and we did
try).  The only bonus to the Georgia Tech user community was the fact
that you could put a whole page on the display...I'd buy one just for
this.

Don't get me wrong...I thought they were a great idea (thats why I
tried to learn how to programme them long after they had been phased
out for the general users), but they just didn't live up to the
promise...

P.S. - Rob Pike's BLIT papers are a must read for anyone doing
windowing system design.  He's a little radical, but he has some good
points...

--

	ken seefried iii		ken@dali.gatech.edu

	"Vee haf veyz off making you talk...release da veasles..."