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From: steve@wattres.UUCP (Steve Watt)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Some questions about terminology
Message-ID: <599@wattres.UUCP>
Date: 15 Sep 90 05:08:14 GMT
References: <1990Sep13.182045.16787@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: steve@wattres.UUCP (Steve Watt)
Organization: Steven Watt, Consultant
Lines: 79

In article <1990Sep13.182045.16787@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
>
>Hi.  I'm trying to get some things straight for a seminar I'm presenting

No problem, glad to help!

[ ... major deletion, I know little about these items ... ]

>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?

The window manager is separate from the ability to run NeWS applications,
since the server is what does the graphics, not the window manager.

[ ... more stuff that I'm likely to chew on my foot if I try to answer ... ]

>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?

I guess I'd better take the 5th on this, being an IBM supplemental...

>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.

Uhh...  Missed on this one.  Open Desktop (TM) is intended to be a complete
operating-system/user-interface/anything-that-looks-useful sort of product.
It comes in a surprisingly small box, and consists of:
    UNIX System V release 3 for the 386, with LOTS of enhancements.
    Locus Computing Corp.'s XSight X11R3 server
    Lachman Associates' TCP/IP
    Ingres Database Management
    Either VP/ix from (of all companies!) Interactive, or maybe
    DOSMerge from Locus, there seems to have been some indecision about that.
    X.desktop from IXI
    Mwm and a few (very few) Motif-ish clients.
    *No* C compiler, software development tools, or the like.

There's probably more that I missed.

>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.)

I was interested in finding out as well, but I haven't been able to get
through...  Please post (or at least e-mail me) if you learn anything about
this.

>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.  :-)

Right.  Exactly.

>-- 
>This is news.  This is your       |    Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech
>brain on news.  Any questions?    |    (pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Nope, just the usual:
rn: brain fried -- Core dumped
--
By the way:  My invocation of the "letters" requires several things:
IBM is a copyright of International Business Machines, and I don't speak
for them.  In fact, I don't speak for me.
Also:  All other products mentioned probably have some copyrights associated,
but I'm not sure why...
-- 
Steve Watt
...!claris!wattres!steve		wattres!steve@claris.com also works
Don't let your schooling get in the way of your education.