Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!mephisto!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ea08+ From: ea08+@andrew.cmu.edu (Eric A. Anderson) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: where X went wrong Message-ID: Date: 10 Sep 90 00:31:29 GMT References: <141973@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>, <9009091549.AA21182@expo.lcs.mit.edu> Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 32 In-Reply-To: <9009091549.AA21182@expo.lcs.mit.edu> I have programmed on three different windowing systems. The Mac, X, and SunView. Of the three, I preffered Sunview the most, because I was able to do a great deal without having to learn very much at all. In sunview, I could create a complete application in very few lines, and when I wanted more control, I was able to get it by learning more. The argument that the Mac is better because it is consistent is somewhat fallicious. Programming on the Mac, and in X is very similar. They both use the same structure. At the current point, the mac has a number of things available, which are somewhat like a toolkit, but much less flexible. I do not really believe that X went wrong at any point, it was written for a completely different environment. Show me the Mac or Windows program that can run on one machine and display on another. Something which is remarkably trivial in X. Show me how easy it is to configure either the Mac or X. It is incredibly hard. You need to add additional programs and other things to make it more configurable. ---------------- I think the primary problem with X is this : It is being programmed by people working in their spare time. Apple had many people work for a long time to create the Mac, ditto with IBM, and Microsoft. X has had college students finding free time to do some sort of a program, and because of this there has been no standard as to the way things will work. Both Motif, and Open Look will change that, these two groups are spending people and money to get their products to market. As such, they are generating a consistant user interface. If all of the X clients had had people who were being paid to do their work, and it was being done by a single group, I am sure that they too would have a more consistant interface. By all means though, if anyone out there wants to define a seperate User Interface, and redo all of the clients to conform to it, I think that would be wonderful, but I doubt that anyone will have the free time to do this. -Eric