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From: guy@gorodish.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: SHL LAYERS
Message-ID: <12342@sun.uucp>
Date: Thu, 29-Jan-87 15:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.12342
Posted: Thu Jan 29 15:23:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Jan-87 04:23:04 EST
References: <1324@cadovax.UUCP> <161@piaget.UUCP> <2463@mtuxo.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: guy@sun.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 16

>It does require a special tty driver to keep all the screen memories, but
>there is no reason an intelligent terminal couldn't do much the same thing.

Yes, and once you've done that you basically end up with *real*
layers, or something equivalent.  However, there are a lot of
terminals out there that can't do this.

>Most users find the interface very comfortable and flexible...

I'm sure they do, but this is completely irrelevant to the merits of
shell layers in general.  By putting in the special tty driver,
you've essentially eliminated a major problem of shell layers, which
is its inability to multiplex the display or to give programs hints
to enable them to help multiplex the display.  If you *don't* have
some form of multi-windowing, though, the interface is drastically
different and not quite so nice.