Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aristotle!pjs From: pjs@aristotle.JPL.NASA.gov (Peter Scott) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Some questions about terminology Message-ID: <1990Sep13.182045.16787@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> Date: 13 Sep 90 18:20:45 GMT Sender: news@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet) Reply-To: pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov Followup-To: comp.windows.x Distribution: na Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech Lines: 70 Nntp-Posting-Host: aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov Hi. I'm trying to get some things straight for a seminar I'm presenting shortly... typically, I'm sure about the more detailed and technical stuff but not some of the more general things. I just want to make sure that I'm accurate. We used to run SunView and now we run X11R4 with Motif, so we haven't used most of the things I'm asking about. If I'm wrong on an assertion, please set me right, as long as you're sure of your answer. If I'm way off base keep those flame throwers on simmer, please. Thanks! o Open Look is a look-and-feel put out by Sun and AT&T. It comprises a style guide, widget set, and window manager, just like Motif. The source code for all of these items is freely available via FTP. o SunView is the proprietary windowing system developed by Sun that they originally shipped with their machines. SunTools is the API for SunView. Source code to SunView is not available. Does Sun still support or develop SunView? o NeWS (Network-extensible Windowing System) is based on a PostScript interpreter and is a client-server model like X. It corresponds to the X Protocol/Xlib levels of X. Is the source code available via FTP? Does anyone supply (or run) a pure NeWS server or just the combined X/NeWS Open Windows server? o The Open Look window manager (olwm) can run applications written for NeWS or X. It does this by running a server from Sun called X/NeWS which serves both windowing systems. Is the source code for this server available via FTP? o XView is an X toolkit, from Sun, based on the Open Look GUI. I assume that it therefore contains a Sun version of the Intrinsics and a widget library. How different are calls to XView from calls to Xt? Is the source code available via FTP? o I'm told that Open Look runs applications written for SunView. Do they need to be modified in any way? Does this mean that I could have on one screen a window containing Xrn and a window containing mailtool? What configuration would I need to make that happen? o Xt+ is a toolkit from AT&T based on the X Intrinsics. Is it then a widget library? A widget library plus some additional Xt-like routines? Is it related to OLIT? o The ballyhoo about GUIs on Unix boxes appears to pit Open Look against Motif. Are there any other contenders at this level that run on many architectures? NeXTStep runs on NeXTs and has been licensed by IBM; is IBM shipping iron with NeXTStep running yet? o Open Desktop from SCO is a product like x.desktop from IXI and Looking Glass from Visix that adds a Mac-like icon-based interface to many common Unix commands, e.g., files are icons, and certain operations can be performed on them by moving and/or clicking on their icons. Open Desktop uses mwm. o A tally of applications shipping for different GUIs (_Personal Workstation_, 9/90) shows Open Look eclipsing the competition. Is this lead due to their counting in applications that run under SunView and therefore automatically run under Open Look? What would the tally look like without them? (Tally shows 55 for Open Look vs. 23 for NeXTStep, 22 for OS/2 PM, and 17 for Motif.) o X/Open is nothing to do with the X Window System and is so named merely as a distraction to people trying to keep all this **** terminology straight. :-) -- This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech brain on news. Any questions? | (pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov)