Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!ucbvax!BRILLIG.UMD.EDU!NeWS-makers-request From: NeWS-makers-request@BRILLIG.UMD.EDU (Don Hopkins) Newsgroups: comp.windows.news Subject: Re: NeWS wanted Message-ID: <8704241428.AA10008@ohio-state.ARPA> Date: Fri, 24-Apr-87 17:52:14 EDT Article-I.D.: ohio-sta.8704241428.AA10008 Posted: Fri Apr 24 17:52:14 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 22:46:44 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 49 Date: Fri, 24 Apr 87 09:28:30 est From: Bob Sutterfield To: NeWS-makers@brillig.umd.edu Subject: Re: NeWS wanted Cc: dwshin%csd.kaist.ac.kr@RELAY.CS.NET > From: Dongwook Shin > > ... Though Sunview is faster than any other window system on > SUN hardware, its capability is slightly limited and it is not > a standard on UNIX. I don't know about your application environment (a Prolog window system?!), but in a general-purpose UNIX edit/compile/link/debug sort of a development cycle (like I live in), I find that X performs far better than Sunview. Especially in a hardware-constrained system, like a Sun-3/50 with just enough memory (4Mb), or with an overloaded ND server, I find that paging and swapping loads bog down Sunview to where it sometimes becomes hardly usable. On a Sun-2/120 (also 4Mb) the scarce CPU cycles burned just doing screen lock contention in Sunview became really noticeable once I moved to X. If the hardware constraint is network bandwidth (not a problem here yet), you may find that window protocol packet transmission may become your biggest problem, but only when the clients are elsewhere than the server. Gosling claims that NeWS' Postscript protocols are more informationally-dense, but I have yet to see any real numbers on how much net traffic that might save in various application environments. In a server based system (like X) each window that corresponds to a client on another machine uses CPU, memory, and disk I/O channel resources on that host, some amount of network bandwidth, and hardly any of my workstation. All in all, it feels much better. We're still waiting for our NeWS distribution, so I can't comment on that system personally. > So, we are going to work with NeWS or X window. Would you > inform me of where I can get it and how much it is? Get NeWS information from your friendly neighborhood Sun sales rep. How much it costs depends upon who you are and whether you want sources. Get X from zap.mit.edu (18.72.0.126), and ask about it at xpert@athena.mit.edu. It's free (Thanks, DEC!). ------ Bob Sutterfield, Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277 bob@ohio-state.{arpa,csnet} or ...!cb{osgd,att}!osu-eddie!bob (614)292-7348 (office) or -0915 (operators) or -7325 (answering machine)