Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!voder!apple!dowdy
From: dowdy@apple.UUCP (Tom Dowdy)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Why I'm suspicious of NeWS
Message-ID: <7394@apple.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 88 19:21:32 GMT
References: <2940@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <3851@megaron.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: dowdy@apple.UUCP (Tom Dowdy)
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 40

In article <3851@megaron.arizona.edu> mike@arizona.edu (Mike Coffin) writes:
>Here's an extreme example, just to make a point.  Suppose we have a
>main CPU in a robot on Mars, with a workstation on earth.  The
>communication delay is on the order of minutes.  The robot detects an
>anomalous situation, one that demands a decision from earth.  Two
>scenarios:
>
> [scenarios deleted, they described how slow X would be in this situation
   vs how fast NeWS would be]
>Granted, most networks aren't that slow.  And for all I know, X11 has

They aren't?  The above example is getting a little carried away,
but we were able to come up with a much more realistic one very
quickly:

When the world is a better place and ISDN is everywhere, the possibilities
of running windowing applications across the country (or even trans-continental)
will be commonplace for people who can afford the line charges.  But have
you taken a Physics 101 look at the time involved in a speed of light
transaction across the country? (And that's assuming no delay, which
packet switching would introduce, or heaven forbid, should there be a 
satelite in there someplace)  Now, according to the porting guide, one
needs 5 to 50 ms turnaround time to make X work well.  You cant do that
if you are talking 4000 miles!

Now I talked to someone who *had* run X across a satelite, he said that
while it was slow it was still workable, and one REALLY only noticed
the delay when doing rubber-band type operations.  

I don't really have an opinion of X vs. NeWS, but anything that requires
a high speed LAN and ships billions of bytes of data just to do an interface
is up for question in my mind.  This is sort of what I call the "CS" mentality.
"Well, it isn't fast enough now, but those engineers will figure out a 
way to make fast CPUs/LANs sometime, and then it will be great.  Isn't
it so elegant?"

  Tom Dowdy                 CSNET:    dowdy@apple.CSNET
  Apple Computer MS:27Y     AppleLink:DOWDY1
  20525 Mariani Ave         UUCP:     {sun,voder,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!dowdy
  Cupertino, CA 95014    
  "The 'Oo-Ah' Bird is so called because it lays square eggs."