Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!olivea!mintaka!bloom-beacon!SABER.COM!jimf
From: jimf@SABER.COM
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: A tirade about inefficient software & systems
Message-ID: <9011051527.AA03775@armory>
Date: 5 Nov 90 15:27:27 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 21

|HCI?  I'm not familiar with the acronym.

Human-Computer Interface.  More often CHI, as in SIGCHI.

As for X versus other windowing environments, the X distributed
approach is a good one so long as network bandwidth is high.  Other
techniques, such as those used in NeWS, are better when bandwidth must
be preserved, such as over telephone lines.  The X imaging model is
far inferior to most others available (such as Display PostScript,
NeWS, or SGI GL/DGL) but it suffices for many applications.
Extensions are already correcting many deficiencies.

I think of X as the IBM-PC of the windowing world.  It's not that
great a technological feat -- but it's open enough that people can fix
the things that were done wrong.  It's not elegant -- but it works
well enough to get your work done.  When it comes right down to it
that's all most of us want anyway.

jim frost
saber software
jimf@saber.com