Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucla-cs!math.ucla.edu!pico!barry From: barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: X11 opinion. Message-ID: <577@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> Date: 22 Oct 90 07:08:22 GMT References: <9224@helios.TAMU.EDU> <564@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> Sender: news@MATH.UCLA.EDU Organization: UCLA Dept. of Math, UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research Lines: 33 In article dd26+@andrew.cmu.edu (Douglas F. DeJulio) writes: >barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: >> I think NeXT should build X into NeXTStep the same way X is built into >> NeWS. It wouldn't hurt anything, and it would broaden their appeal >> somewhat. > >It wouldn't hurt anything? I disagree. X11 is an abomination. >I wish people would abandon this foolishnes called X11. There one thing that cannot be denied about X11---it is a defacto standard. As such, it is valuable. As long as all GUIs support X, we can have at least a degree of platform independence, and at least do some level of windowing across all platforms and networks. X11 is a common denominator (and free). That is its value. Yes, the world would be a better place if X11 could be replaced by NeXTStep---but it can't be, since it is proprietary. Actually, I hope someday NeXT gives a great gift to the computer industry and makes NeXTStep freely available to run on other platforms. This, of course, would be a radical thing to do---but NeXT is just the company that could do such a thing. (Lets carry out any future X11 wars elsewhere...sorry I brought it up.) -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)