Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!maxim!prc
From: prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: (Yet another) OpenLook vs. Motif Article by (yet) an(other) Expert
Message-ID: <1865@hulda.erbe.se>
Date: 19 Oct 90 19:15:04 GMT
References: <9010182336.AA09143@fay.statsci.com>
Organization: ERBE DATA AB, Jarfalla, Sweden
Lines: 59

In a recent article vonn@fay.UUCP (Vonn Marsch) writes:

>> Why does UNIX International make you bitter? As far as I know, that
>> organization isn't in favour of either Motif or Open Look. AT&T USL
>> and Sun Microsystems are those who should make you bitter.
>
>Forgive me if I was mistaken; I thought that UNIX International was the
>organization consisting of Sun and AT&T.  If not, what is UNIX International?

UNIX International consists of <a large number> computer system and
software vendors. They are pushing AT&T USL UNIX System V. They don't
say anything specifically about the GUI, though, and as a matter of
fact, most UI member companies are shipping OSF/Motif rather than
Open Look.

A short quote from the UI Roadmap:

	"Graphical User Interface

	A consolidated GUI represents the most important issue for
	System V with respect to attracting ISV support, particularly
	for desktop applications. ISVs need assurances that a stable and
	forward compatible GUI will exist which will be applicable to
	the wide range of UNIX vendor systems. The lack of a standard
	GUI for UNIX systems has made it difficult for many ISVs to
	develop UNIX applications because of the difficulty in porting
	user interface functionality. Complicating the issue is that a
	GUI is made of several items, including the underlying graphics
	intrinsics, the application programmer interface (API), and the
	'look-and-feel', which includes the window appearance and user
	operation capability. This issue was first addressed by the
	adoption of the X Window System standard by UNIX vendors and now
	by System V Release 4. The Roadmap extends X windows support to
	popular 'look-and-feels'.

	It is the position of UNIX International to ensure System V will
	effectively support X windows based GUIs. This means System V is
	a stable platform providing application investment protection
	for ISVs and end-users by ensuring GUI compatibility,
	portability, and heterogeneous interoperability exists for X
	windows-based GUIs which meet appropriate technical and market
	criteria. These criteria are: 1) Conformance to the X
	architecture; 2) Open availability of the GUI specifications to
	the marketplace; 3) Commercial availability of the product; 4)
	Absence of legal encumbrances; and 5) Exstence on SVR4 and
	ability to be forward compatible with future GUI requirements
	for the 1990s. The Roadmap requires System V to ensure that
	applications based on such popular GUIs will operate without
	modifications on all SVR4 systems."

And then the Roadmap goes on and says that they will work on producing
a look-and-feel independent API that will provide source code
independence from the various GUI APIs and look-and-feels.

-- 
Robert Claeson                  |Reasonable mailers: rclaeson@erbe.se
ERBE DATA AB                    |      Dumb mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se@sunet.se
                                |  Perverse mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se@encore.com
These opinions reflect my personal views and not those of my employer.