Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!ora!tim
From: tim@ora.com (Tim O'Reilly)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Where do I find information about ICCCM?
Message-ID: <1990Sep26.194016.2347@ora.com>
Date: 26 Sep 90 11:46:12 GMT
Organization: O'Reilly and Associates Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 33

> >> It is also reproduced as an appendix in the "X Protocol Reference Manual",
> >> ed. Adrian Nye, O'Reilly and Associates (Vol 0 in their X Window System
> >> Series), 1990, ISBN 0-937175-50-1.  This appears to be a pretty printed
> >> version of the document that is distributed with X11R4.
> >> 
> >Are you SURE its the same document?  O'Reilly & Assoc. printed (against
> >the explicit instructions of the X Consortium) an interim draft of the
> >ICCCM in the earlier editions of their books.  There are significant
> >differences between the interim draft and the final version that will
> >confuse people.
 
I wish people would stop repeating this slander.  We printed the
interim version after consulting with the X Consortium.  We were
unable to raise David Rosenthal, but Bob Scheifler advised us that
he thought it was better to publish the interim ICCCM than none
at all.  After all, it was already distributed to everyone on the
MIT tape!  David Rosenthal did object to this later, but by then
it was a done deed, and most certainly not "against the explicit
instructions of the X Consortium."  We replaced it with the final
edition as soon as possible.  The original version was clearly
footnoted as preliminary and subject to change, just as it was in
the MIT distribution.

BTW, if there are any doubts about which version you have, just
check which book it is in:  the interim version appeared as an
appendix in Volume 2, Xlib Reference Manual.  The final version
was moved to an appendix in Volume 0, X Protocol Reference
Manual.  It no longer appears in current editions of Volume 2.

Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.  Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
632 Petaluma Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472
707-829-8512, 800-338-6887 (in CA 800-533-6887), FAX 707-829-0104
Internet:  tim@ora.com     UUCP:  uunet!ora!tim