Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!msi.umn.edu!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@erick.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: XNeXT on NextStep 2.0????? Message-ID: Date: 8 Mar 91 04:44:38 GMT References: <1991Mar5.232508.20719@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <1991Mar7.140806.13975@wam.umd.edu> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 33 Nntp-Posting-Host: erick.gac.edu In-reply-to: charlie@wam.umd.edu's message of 7 Mar 91 14:08:06 GMTLines: 33 In article <1991Mar7.140806.13975@wam.umd.edu> charlie@wam.umd.edu (Charles William Fletcher) writes: I also question binary compatiblity-I have had several problems. Is there really suppose to be binary compatibility between the old and new chips/systems, or have I misunderstood this. Well, binary compatibility only means so much. What NeXT really means (and I think it's in there, small print, you know) is that programs which follow the API should be binarily compatible. XNeXT, for one, did not follow the API. For speed (or conveinience?) MIT chose to go under it and use more raw commands to interface with the windowserver. Thus, XNeXT broke under 2.0. mouse-X has similar problems, I believe, in that the author, while a good programmer, is not a good _NextStep_ programmer (from our discussions, he's an X-person, not so much a NeXT-person). If you look at the sources, you realize rather quickly that these were not generated by someone out of developer's camp! I guess I was sort of surprised that they ran under 1.0 :-). There are some other apps with problems, too. I'm not sure what I can say about them. What I can say is that almost all of the apps that I've seen which had binary compatibility problems did not conform to the NeXT UI guidelines, and thus I suspect did not fully conform to the API. Later, -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Tried anarchy, once. Found it had too many constraints . . ." "I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Banana, banana."