Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mmlai!burzio
From: burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Anthony Burzio)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Xhibition highlights
Summary: Xhibition musings
Message-ID: <394@mmlai.UUCP>
Date: 26 Aug 88 13:17:30 GMT
References: <23369@labrea.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Martin Marietta Labs, Baltimore, MD
Lines: 76

In article <23369@labrea.Stanford.EDU>, rick@hanauma (Richard Ottolini) writes:
> 
> Could an attendee please describe the exciting new developements? Thanks.

*** Opinions off the starboard bow, Capt'n! ***

The most exciting thing to happen was HP brought out their widget
set and donated it to MIT.  Of course, if you like horror-thrillers
you could count DEC and their "X is MINE MINE ALL MINE" attitude...

Some notes on the vendors:

HP -  These guys seem to have their act together.  Give them an A+
      for cooperation with the X consortium.  They mentioned the
      L (lawyer)-word once, but only to protect themselves, not in 
      an attempt to grab profits from MITs' work...  Their 3D widgets
      are tacky, but what the heck, they *DO* look like HP instruments.

SUN - They are there because the others are.  If X works, that's cool
      to them, but if not who cares, they have NeWs...

DEC - I used to like these guys (I'm an old CMU'er) but I have gotten
      burned five or six times too often.  Seems DECs' interest in
      X comes from the failure of their original window manager on
      the VAXStations.  This company should be ejected from the 
      consortium ( and OSF) until they behave.
      SPECIFICS:
        1) Digital has it(you) now... (evil chuckle)...
      DEC will supply the X of the future and that is that.  Seems
      they feel confident about controlling the OSF so who cares about
      all the work that has gone before.   (Note: OSF has located in
      Boston.  Will companies located in Palo Alto have an equal say?)
        2) DEC states that they will contribue their work to OSF, but
      their REP had hearing loss when questioned about releasing it
      to the public domain.  Hold on to your wallets!
        3) DEC has "modified" their drivers.  Groan.  Lord knows what
      they have done now.
        4) DEC is realeasing a "look and feel" document.  That one should
      send alarms ringing throughout the land.  The (grrr) Lawyers will
      have loads of fun patenting everything in sight...
        5) Funny comment of the week:
        DEC:
      We (DEC) can make a profit selling standards.  Ours has to have
      some "value added".
       (Greeted with general mirth and cat calls)
        Crowd:
      I thought DEC was submitting their work as a standard?
	DEC:
      That is true.
        Crowd:
      When all the other vendors follow the standard, how can you have
      "value added"?
        DEC:
      (long pause)
      We'll just have to do it that much better...

      The courses on the first two days for the technical group were
      pretty good.  I'd suggest you get a copy of the course notes
      "Programming the X Window System" by Oliver Jones
      "Programming the Xt Toolkit" by David Burleigh
      These notes will allow you to reconstruct the lectures and are
      quite good as an X primer.

      The rest of the days were sort of slow.  Most of the time was
      spent with the vendors telling us of their progress.  A general
      note is my vague feeling that there aren't many programs written
      for X as yet that will wean people away from VT style terminals.
      The vendors will have to work on this.  A MAC is a much cheaper
      box than a traditional workstation *AND* it does pretty pictures...

      Oh sure, I'll get flamed for these, but these are my opinions...

**************************************************************************
Tony Burzio                  * Like DEC,                                 *
Martin Marietta Laboratories *  These opinions are all MINE MINE MINE... *
**************************************************************************