Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!jumbo!jg
From: jg@jumbo.dec.com (Jim Gettys)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: OPEN LOOK
Message-ID: <13088@jumbo.dec.com>
Date: 2 Jun 88 19:56:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: jumbo.13088
References: <2226@homxc.UUCP> <26900035@uiucdcsm> <11065@steinmetz.ge.com>
Reply-To: jg@jumbo.UUCP (Jim Gettys)
Organization: DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto
Lines: 25

In article <11065@steinmetz.ge.com> dawn!stpeters@steinmetz.UUCP (Dick St.Peters) writes:
>In article <26900035@uiucdcsm> grogers@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>>
>>Although OPEN LOOK is not defined yet, it is the standard.  I like that.
>
>Reminds me of when X11 was declared the standard before it was defined.
>--

Not true; X11 specs went out (for public comment) in August 1986; the
annoucement at the X conference was the following January (1987). They
were available electronically for anyone to look at, and availability was
annouced widely.  There was lots of things that went into the design as a
result of the feedback.  So  people who cared had a chance to take a real
good look ahead of time, and had real input along the way before the
design was firmed up that fall.  Even so, some things experience only
taught us during field test (dealing with the keyboard properly, for
example).  But the design was well defined by that January, and had been
open for public comment.

The announcement that January certainly surprised many of us involved (not
to mention caused us to lose lots of sleep; it is bad enough when your
company has bet on you; even worse when many other companies do as well,
before you've really finished).  And the announcement was made by a large
fraction of the industry at the same time.  
				- Jim Gettys