Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!well!jef
From: jef@well.sf.ca.us (Jef Poskanzer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: What's in a name:  "X Window"
Message-ID: <23933@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 30 Mar 91 04:52:03 GMT
References: <1991Mar29.231159.24791@ico.isc.com>
Reply-To: Jef Poskanzer <jef@well.sf.ca.us>
Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric, Ada Lovelace Cabal
Lines: 25

In the referenced message, scottw@ico.isc.com (Scott Wiesner) wrote:
}For a long time, everyone seemed to refer to X as X Windows.  There
}were lots of comments explaining it's not called X Windows, it's a 
}window system called X.  In the last year or so, I've seen many references
}in magazines to "X Window".  Clearly such references are describing
}the "X Window System".  Did "X Window" become an official name while
}I wasn't looking?  Somehow, statements such as "One of the key advantages
}of X Window is that..." don't look, sound, or feel right to me.

The way this originally came about was, people would start to say "X
Windows", then partway through they would remember that they're not
supposed to do that, so they would sort of trail off into a small
embarassed pause.  Sort of, "X Windoweh..."  Really quite lame.  But
more recently, other people who listened to such verbalized bogosities
but didn't hear or more likely didn't understand the pause, have
started using it in writing.

All of this is very much in keeping with the X people's *policy* of
giving you as much rope as you need...
---
Jef

  Jef Poskanzer  jef@well.sf.ca.us  {apple, ucbvax, hplabs}!well!jef
     "Never get angry.  Never make a threat.  Reason with people."
                            -- Don Corleone