Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!att-cb!osu-cis!tut!pterodactyl!zwicky
From: zwicky@pterodactyl.cis.ohio-state.edu (Elizabeth D. Zwicky)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Comparing NeWS and X
Message-ID: <6861@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 88 16:49:06 GMT
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer and Information Science
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How's this for a reasonably educated comparison?

We run X and NeWS. We have reasonably expert programmers in both.
Recently, two competent (to say the least) C programmers with
considerable UNIX experience (and no experience in programming either
 window system) set out to write graphic front ends for programs, one
in X and one in NeWS. Both programs took approximately the same amount
of time to write. (The X in question is X10; the NeWS is 1.1 *very* beta)	

*But* there were some differences. The NeWS programmer had a much
lower level of frustration. The code for the NeWS program is shorter.
The NeWS program has a better user interface, because its programmer
could  afford to spend more time on the user interface. Finally,
the X programmer wants to write future programs in NeWS, and *not*
in X, while the NeWS programmer also wants to write future programs
in NeWS. (My favorite measure here is "number of times programmer
publicly expressed a desire to bang his head against the wall";
NeWS is the clear winner here, with only 1 or 2, compared to X's
about 1 a day.)

Obviously, this leaves a lot of unanswered questions about NeWS'
advantages, but it does seem to indicate that all other things
being equal, it's easier to program.

	Elizabeth Zwicky