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From: peterd@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: UPDATE : (Re: XWindows W11 Release 4)
Summary: Why? Because...
Message-ID: <2264@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>
Date: 21 Sep 90 06:04:57 GMT
References: <2241@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> <50554@brunix.UUCP>
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Lines: 59

In article <50554@brunix.UUCP>, rca@cslab5a.cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) writes:
> Why must X blank the screen? I thought XNeXT was so handy in that it allowed
> the two window systems to coexist on the same screen. Why not keep that,
> please!!

I think XNext doesn't allow you to resize the window, only
specify the size of the root window at start-up. If you
started it big enough to be useful, it takes the whole
screen :-)

My own preference is to have two distinct user interfaces
running separately and toggle between them, not try to mix
a point-and-click focus window besides a grab-root-focus
window, as you move the cursor across the screen (Yes, I
know this depends upon your window manager in X!)

Still, no accounting for tastes and part of the reason for
doing this is to give users more choice. The suggestion of
side-by-side operation was debated and it was even suggested
that we might be able to allow both kinds of windows to
overlap, but clipping can't be done and it just became too
ugly for words. There has been some discussion along these
lines about using a feature specific to release 4 that
allows resizing the root window.

I only vaguely understand this (isn't this fun? It's like
playing telephone, but with technical buzzwords thrown
in! :-) but I understand that if you do this, X says what
is then exposed is "undefined" and can be the NeXTstep
stuff showing through from behind. It's being investigated
and if it's easy it might make it into 1.0 release. If
not, you are free to take sources and hack it in. :-)

Of course, I also hope to hear from someone about getting
keyboard and mouse events without NeXTstep. We've
apparently got a lead, which means a stand-alone version
(no NeXTstep at all) is a possibility.

Progress update, since I seem to have everyone's
attention. I talked to somebody about doing a little app
to allow us to launch this without running a shell. We
need a button to select X, a few choices on a menu (like
"info", hide" and "quit" and a man page. YES< WE MUST ALL
SUPPLY MAN PAGES! (sorry, I don't know where that came
from.)

Now, to design the Icon! :-)


			- peterd

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 " Although botanically speaking a fruit, in 1893 the U.S. Supreme Court 
 unanimously ruled that tomatoes are a vegetable (and thus taxable under 
 the Tariff Act of 1883) because of the way they are usually served. "

                                          ref:  Smithsonian, August, 1990.
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