Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!milton!Tomobiki-Cho!mrc From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: X11 opinion. Message-ID: <9751@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 23 Oct 90 02:18:46 GMT References: <564@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> <9657@milton.u.washington.edu> <1990Oct23.005737.18459@mcs.anl.gov> Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi Lines: 57 In article <1990Oct23.005737.18459@mcs.anl.gov> korp@atlantis.ees.anl.gov (Peter Korp) writes: >Not entirely true. Yes NeXTstep only runs on NeXT and IBM machines but it is >inherently network based and there is nothing, other than NeXT and IBM, >preventing the port of NeXTstep to other platforms. Ahem. I have seen *no* motion whatever on NeXT's part to open NeXTstep so implementors can develop NeXTstep engines on other platforms. In other words, you can only have NeXTstep on platforms NeXT has decided to allow NeXTstep on, under NeXT's terms and conditions. >It seems that Toshiba was able to produce a SPARCportable offering this >capability under NeWS. Its just a matter of time before the fonts become >available in standard PostScript formats. PostScript East Asian fonts are not the problem. The problem is that the NeXT Display PostScript driver itself cannot handle multi-byte character fonts! >>"Foolish" X11 allows us to use US-produced and maintained hardware to >>access the 25 Dynasties database at our East Asian Languages Library >>instead of having to buy Taiwanese PCs that explode if the monitor is >>turned on before the CPU is. >What exactly is your point? The point is that the only ways today for a user to connect to a Taiwanese Chinese-language database (which uses BIG5, an incompatible representation Chinese from the BG system used in mainland China) are: . X11, any X11-supporting platform . Macintosh with Apple Taiwan's system software . Taiwanese PC that isn't supported outside of Taiwan and breaks a lot >>If I were to wager on which was more likely to survive longer, X11 or >>NeXT, I would put my money on "foolish" X11. >I will agree, but it sure makes a sad statement for the supposed computer >professionals out there if it does. X has served its purpose, now lets move >on to more mature technology. Have you ever noticed how every new version >of X looks more and more like NeWS or NeXTstep? Lets have hybrid systems to >tide us over while we withdraw from X and then good riddance. X will survive for the same reasons Unix has survived. Unix is an incredibly *primitive* operating system. It's the tools layered on top of Unix, and its portability to unlimited platforms, that have pushed it to the top of the heap. Unless NeXT gives NeXTstep to the world, NeXTstep is doomed to be nothing more than a footnote in alt.folklore.computers. _____ | ____ ___|___ /__ Mark ("Gaijin") Crispin "Gaijin! Gaijin!" _|_|_ -|- || __|__ / / R90/6 pilot, DoD #0105 "Gaijin ha doko?" |_|_|_| |\-++- |===| / / Atheist & Proud "Niichan ha gaijin." --|-- /| |||| |___| /\ (206) 842-2385/543-5762 "Chigau. Gaijin ja nai. /|\ | |/\| _______ / \ MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU Omae ha gaijin darou" / | \ | |__| / \ / \"Iie, boku ha nihonjin." "Souka. Yappari gaijin!" Hee, dakedo UNIX nanka wo tsukatte, umaku ikanaku temo shiranai yo.