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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!alice!rob
From: rob@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.graphics
Subject: from the horse's keyboard
Message-ID: <2134@alice.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Aug-83 21:32:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.2134
Posted: Mon Aug 22 21:32:15 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Aug-83 15:28:22 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 29

enough people jumped in to correct the error's in wake's article that
i will only mention that the corrections are correct.

fischer's complaint about windows being badly utilized is more serious.
if what you stack up are asr33 windows, what you get is stacks of
asr33 windows.  if the blit is what he is complaining about, and
that is implied by his message, i counter that there is much more
going on than that.  the default window program is a little scrolling
terminal, but it is often replaced by programs that make much better
use of the facilities available, especially the graphics.  we have
windows that edit files, debug programs, monitor system performance,
edit icons and, of course, play games.

the asr33 windows are themselves stopgaps.  my personal version of the
software runs by default a window that lets you edit the text on the
screen, scroll around in it, and copy it to and from unix and the
other windows.  nothing at all like an asr33 (or a concept 100, for
that matter).

but i think fischer is complaining that the windows aren't interrelated
in some deep way as they are in, say, smalltalk.  i argue that the
blit's success comes largely from the independence of the windows,
which capitalizes on the multiprogramming capabilities of unix.
there are plenty of examples of this in action, at least one of which
he admits to having seen: debugging when the debugger and the subject
process are decoupled is a whole new experience.

so, the windows are quite well used, thank you, although they
might not be used the way fischer expects.