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From: markl@vecpyr.UUCP (Mark Patrick)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: windows and portability? (longish)
Message-ID: <228@vecpyr.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Dec-85 12:32:59 EST
Article-I.D.: vecpyr.228
Posted: Tue Dec 10 12:32:59 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Dec-85 05:23:43 EST
Reply-To: markl@vecpyr.UUCP (Mark Patrick)
Organization: The UNIX Graphics Software Company, Visual Engineering Inc
Lines: 37


An article was recently posted Net.lang.c comparing Sun Tools and the
Mac user interface toolbox.  Its main points can be summarized as follows:

	The Mac's software interface is incredibly machine dependent and 
		very cumbersome.

	The Mac's window system is "quick" and "dirty" compared to the
		Sun's.

	Sun Tools provides a much higher level of interface than does
		the Mac.

While recognizing many weak points in the design of the Mac (very
limited memory, disk space and compute power compared to a
Sun/Apollo/Lisp Machine).  I consider its user interface to be a
strong point compared to these machines.

Having looked at both these products and typical user interfaces constructed 
from them I have the reverse opinion.  

The user interface components on Mac: the dialog manager, the menu manager, 
the control manager, the resource editor and MacApp seem far more capable 
of supporting a high quality user interface than does SunTools 
(moreover the documentation for Mac seems much clearer than that for the Sun).  

Since I last looked at the Sun documentation they have added a CGI and
are working on a new user interface and better documentation.  However, 
I am told by those who have to program to this interface that this is 
still dificult.

I would be very interested in hearing what features on the Sun (or
other workstation) appeal to end users/programmers which they
believe simpflify application development yet yield high quality user
interfaces and ideas for easing the porting of applications between
bit-mapped systems while not sacrificing quality of user
interface/functionality.