Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eng.sun.COM!hvr From: hvr@eng.sun.COM (Heather Rose) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: What's what in OPEN LOOK/OpenWindows (long) Message-ID: <9009171845.AA02659@kimba.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 17 Sep 90 18:45:35 GMT Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root) Organization: The Internet Lines: 268 First, I'll list all the pieces (much of this information can be found in "The NeWS Book" by Gosling, Rosenthal, and Arden which lists additional window systems and in greater technical detail): o SunView is a user interface toolkit built on top of SunWindows. SunWindows is a kernel-based window system which was one of the first widely used window systems on UNIX. It was one of the first window systems to deal with the problems of multiple processes and address spaces. SunWindows was first released in 1983. The SunView user interface toolkit was first released in 1984 (the same year Apple introduced the Mac--remember the Orwellian ads on TV?). SunView had no style guide or functional specification. o X began life as a distant relation to the W (1982) window system from Stanford. In 1983, Project Athena (research project at MIT funded by DEC and IBM) first began using X on Vax computers. In 1985, two students from CMU on winter break ported X10 from the Vax to other popular workstations which made it much more widely used (some of you may remember the hardcoded key layouts from the Vax Stations.) In 1987, X10 was reworked into X11 which we are using today. X made window management into a separate process, and did not specify a look or feel. The X Toolkit (now referred to as the Intrinsics) first started life on X10, then provided much feedback for the development of X11 and Xt on X11 today. o NeWS (Networked, extensible Window System) was first released in 1986 by Sun Microsystems. NeWS is based on the PostScript imaging model to leverage a standard graphics model introduced by Adobe and widely used for printing. NeWS is like the X server or SunWindows in that it also just manages windows and does not provide a toolkit or user interface. The first toolkit for NeWS, Lite, was an experimental toolkit written in object-oriented PostScript. The most widely used toolkit for NeWS today is the publically available GoodNeWS/HyperNeWS from the Turing Institute. o XView is the next generation of SunView on X11. Many of the problems with the SunView toolkit were fixed in the XView toolkit. XView was first released with OpenWindows 1.0 in 1989. The source to XView was made publically available later that year. XView does not use the Xt Intrinsics, but it's own object-oriented foundation layer. XView implements the OPEN LOOK GUI with a SunView API. o X11/NeWS is a combined X11 and NeWS window server. X and NeWS share the same event stream, the same graphics substructures, the same window hierarchy. X11/NeWS was first released by Sun Microsystems with OpenWindows 1.0 in 1989. For example, one can create an X window, then open a connection to the NeWS side of the server, hand over the X window id, and then begin rendering PostScript in the X window. (This is how the XVPS package added to XView works.) o Xt+ (now called OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit, OLIT) developed by USL (UNIX Software Labs was spun off by AT&T as a separate company so other vendors besides AT&T can have more influence over the direction of UNIX.) OLIT is a distant relation to the HP widgets donated to the X Consortium. USL calls OLIT "OPEN LOOK." Sun uses the name OLIT to avoid confusing the the L&F with an implementation. OLIT implements an OPEN LOOK GUI with an Xt API. o The NeWS Toolkit (now called TNT, formally called NDE) was developed by Sun Microsystems for NeWS. It completely replaces Lite which was the predecessor to TNT built on NeWS before it was merged with X11. What distinguishes TNT from most other toolkits is the ability to dynamically change the L&F via dynamic subclassing. TNT implements OPEN LOOK with a TNT API. o OPEN LOOK is a graphical user interface specification and style guide. Sun, AT&T, and Xerox worked together (with industry review) to define the look and feel of OPEN LOOK over a 2.5 year period. The goals of OPEN LOOK were to create a user interface for a multi-tasking, networked display which would be familiar to users coming from the PC space, to provide a look and feel which is legally safe (no chance of a lawsuit), and to provide the right to license the look and feel at no charge (the GUI L&F is free). With many companies suing over L&F copyright and others charging outrageous rates just to use their L&F (not the implementation, just the specification), these were basic requirements for the GUI. OPEN LOOK was prototyped with several toolkits and window systems: SunView on SunWindows, XView on X11R2, X11R3 and X11/NeWS, OLIT on Xt on X11R2 and X11R3, and The NeWS Toolkit on NeWS. The functional specification and style guide are toolkit and window system independent. The OPEN LOOK user interface can be licensed at no charge for any type of computer. About one month after OPEN LOOK was announced to be the user interface for System 5 Release 4, the OSF began an RFT (Request for Technology) process for what is now called OSF/Motif. OPEN LOOK was submitted by AT&T to the OSF as a candidate for the graphical user interface specification and style guide. About one to two months later, OSF announced the Motif decision. Motif is a combination of technologies from DEC, HP, and Microsoft. o OLWM (OPEN LOOK Window Manager) is one name for two implementations. USL (formally a division within AT&T) releases a version of olwm with a session manager, swm, with the OLIT toolkit. Olwm from Sun Microsystems is a window manager for X clients which has some rudimentary session management built in. Olwm from Sun Microsystems was first donated to the X Consortium with the XView toolkit in 1989. The latest donation of XView and olwm was August 1990 based on the source from OpenWindows Version 2. Olwm currently does not manage NeWS windows since the NeWS Toolkit has a built-in window management library much like previous window systems to X. Since the NeWS Toolkit can be changed at runtime, customization can happen at any time; thus, there is no need for a separate window management process for user interface customization. o OpenWindows is the name of Sun's networked window products. OpenWindows includes many pieces: X11/NeWS server, Open Fonts, Xt/OLIT, XView, TNT, olwm, DeskSet, and various libraries and utilities. Open Fonts are scalable fonts in a format called F3 and includes all the fonts on a LaserWriter II plus more. DeskSet is a suit of personal productivity tools including a file manager, mail tool, and calendar. The rest of the pieces are mentioned above. OpenWindows also will run SunView programs in binary compatibility mode, and will allow direct access to the frame buffer (punch through the window system). OpenWindows has been an unbundled product (have to pay extra); however, a user's set of OpenWindows is bundled with every diskfull SunIPC. OpenWindows will eventually become the default window system for all Sun systems. Now, having the pieces defined, onto the specific questions... In article <1990Sep13.182045.16787@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, pjs@aristotle.JPL.NASA.gov (Peter Scott) writes: |> |> 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. |> |> 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. No, OPEN LOOK is just a user interface specification and application style guide. i.e. it is an idea not an implementation of an idea. |> 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? No, Suntools is really just a program that one runs to start up the SunView environment. The source to suntools is on Sun systems in /usr/share/src/sun/suntool/suntools.c. SunView used to be called SunTools. SunView and SunWindows can be licensed from Sun Microsystems as part of SunOS. This is necessary since SunWindows is partially implemented in the SunOS kernel. The latest release of SunView/SunWindows was with SunOS 4.1. SunView programs will also run with the OpenWindows environment in binary compatibility mode. However, most customers prefer native OPEN LOOK to SunView compatibility. |> 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? NeWS source is not ftp'able. It can found on the graphics update tape of System 5 Release 4 or licensed from Sun. NeWS was available from SGI, Architec, Parallax, the Grasshopper Group, TAG Inc, and more. For more information, contact: Scott Manville, at Open Vistas Association, 80 East 11th St., Suite 222, New York, New York 10003. (212) 979 5337 |> 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? Olwm is ftp'able with the XView source. I sent out an announcement on this a while back. If you need to see it again, send the message: send intro xview2-announce send intro xview2-more send intro xview2-ftp to the email address: xvstuff@norge.eng.sun.com. |> 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? XView's foundation is similar to Xt in that they both provide a way to do subclassing in C. However, the implementation is significantly different from Xt. Yes, source is ftp'able. See above. |> 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? OpenWindows will run unmodified SunView binaries in compatibility mode. |> 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? XT+ was renamed to OLIT. OLIT is an OPEN LOOK widget set. It uses the generic Xt routines with one convenience routine, OlInitialize. |> 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? Just OPEN LOOK and OSF/Motif are being pushed as standard, licensable GUI's. As far as I know, NeXTStep is not readily licensable, and it's not tax free. (i.e. you pay taxes, royalties, for the privilege of using the L&F which is separate from licensing an implementation of a L&F.) |> 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.) Don't know. Also, all the SunView OPEN LOOK applications (I can only think of four) are being ported to X11/OPEN LOOK, so it's a moot point. However, the real reason for the large number of applications for OPEN LOOK is the volume of Sun and Sun-compatible machines already on the market and the number shipping today and in the next year. According to Goldman & Sachs, HP + DEC + IBM combined are scheduled to ship a total of 105K workstations in the next year, and Sun alone is scheduled to ship 160K workstations in the next year of which the majority (> 95%) will be Sparc running OpenWindows/OPEN LOOK. One can be portable between OPEN LOOK and Motif with either careful coding structure (perhaps there are GUI-builder tools to address this point, or special toolkits) or by using Xt-based toolkits which provide a very similar API. Regards, Heather Rose hvr@eng.sun.com Sun Microsystems, Inc.