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From: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: Toolkit for NeWS
Message-ID: <1609@megatest.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Oct-87 21:54:46 EST
Article-I.D.: megatest.1609
Posted: Thu Oct 22 21:54:46 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 15:22:13 EST
References: <8710211435.AA23042@grasp.cis.upenn.edu>
Organization: Megatest Corporation, San Jose, Ca
Lines: 59

in article <8710211435.AA23042@grasp.cis.upenn.edu>, trevor@GRASP.CIS.UPENN.EDU (Trevor Darrell) says:
> 
> 
>    From: Andre Marquis <Bodick@cis.upenn.edu>
>    I'm still wondering if there is going to be a standard user-interface
>    (similar to SunView if need be) toolkit for NeWS.  I talked breifly with
>    Saul Wold of Sun (I'm not sure what his position with them is.) and he
>    indicated that there is nothing on the horizon.  Is this indicative of Sun's
>    long term commitment to NeWS?
> 
> There *is* a framework for development of a standard user interface. In
> case you haven't read the NeWS manual yet, it is collectively contained
> in liteUI, litewin, litemenu, and liteitem. Since I began programming
> in NeWS I am constantly impressed at the elegance and efficiency
> of providing a class based "toolkit". To be sure the lite*.ps packages
> are not complete, and perhaps not standardized yet, which is *why* they
> are called `lite' (tastes great, less filling.) But X11 is far from
> being stable yet, (if you read XPERT), and all my colleagues who
> have tried writing X10.4 code using a toolkit have come away frustrated.
> 
>    >From the dearth of replies to my image queries, I'm assuming the user
>    community is as apathetic toward NeWS as I am acerbic.  Sun is right out.
> 
>    DEC and HP have signaled their commitment to X by developing C based
>    toolkits.  They are public domain.  How does Sun expect NeWS to "win"
>    without an analogous product?
> 
> 
> In the future don't waste the time and energy of the people on this
> list with this sort of "but X will win over NeWS" flame-bait. If you
> enjoy programming in X, fine, you are more than welcome to continue.
> 
> One note of interest- According to yesterdays announced Sun/AT&T agreement,
> NeWS/X.11 will become a part of standard Unix.
> 
> 
> Trevor Darrell
> trevor@grasp.cis.upenn.edu
> 
> CIS Research Computing, U. of Penn.


I didn't read it as flame-bait.   Just resignation. (Talking about wasting 
time and energy might be construed by some as flame-bait, I might add.)   
He asks a question that I, and others I am sure, are quite interested in 
hearing the answer to.

I would strongly suggest that NeWs should have a standard user-interface
which is a superset of SunView.  Not "similar to", but "IS" a superset of. 

If Sun/ATT could announce such intensions, I would be 
much more inclined to write applications in SunView.   There are some 
problems with SunView, but they are not serious enough to warrant pulling 
the rug out from under those who have used it.  There's a chapter in
the SunView manual on "Converting SunWindows Programs to SunView".
I sure don't want to see a "Converting SunView Programs to NeWS" chapter.


So, Sun, if you are listening, what say you?