Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!island!daniel
From: daniel@island.COM (Daniel Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: What's in a name: "X Window"
Message-ID: <3865@island.COM>
Date: 2 Apr 91 19:08:39 GMT
References: <1991Mar29.231159.24791@ico.isc.com> <1991Mar30.162932.20298@smsc.sony.com> <1991Mar30.183140.28445@crl.dec.com> <1991Mar31.005950.21888@smsc.sony.com>
Organization: Island Graphics, Marin County, California
Lines: 26

In <1991Mar31.005950.21888@smsc.sony.com> dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) writes:

> As for "X Windows", I didn't say it was correct, I said it was common.
> I hear people say "X Windows" quite often, and I see them use the term
> in writing news articles.  A quick check shows 15 out of the last 400
> articles (not including this discussion) in this group use the term.

	One thing I stumble across is in conversation with someone who
may not be familiar with X, but who is a programmer (my wife).  I'll
say "it's done this way in X", or "in X Windows you'd do...".  I don't
want to say "in the X Windowing System" or "the X Window System" because
it's too lengthy (and "X" alone sometimes gets to be too terse).  Saying
"in X window" sounds odd.  "X Windows" just rolls off the tongue easily :-)
It seems like it will always be the slang term for it.  When I talk
to a fellow X programmer though, I tend to use the "X Window" term.

	It's interesting that this doesn't seem to come up when talking
about MS Windows (I've never heard "oh, that's an MS Window program"), GEM,
Mac, or any other windowing system I know of.

				Daniel
-- 
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