Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu!bob
From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,cis.staff.software
Subject: dozing vendor
Message-ID: <22992@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 29 Sep 88 22:36:23 GMT
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science
Lines: 40

I just got off the phone from a conversation with a technical support
representative of a vendor of software that runs on workstations.  I'm
pretty amazingly frustrated, so I thought I'd share it with y'all :-)

Their software has historically run on workstations' native window
system (e.g. SunView), but has been ported to X10.  We're running
their X10 client product on our Sun-3s, and it's in regular classroom
use.  The classes that use this software chose it for its function,
and they're fairly satisfied with it on that basis.  Windows-wise, it
does OK, even if their user interface still looks exactly like
SunView, just reimplemented under X10.

We're trying to convert everyone here to X11.  One reason for
individuals not to convert is if the software they need to use doesn't
yet run under X11, and a major sticking point is this vendor's
software.  So I asked the tech rep when they would be shipping a
release of their software that would work under X11.

He agreed that X11 is the wave of the future, and pointed out that
their company is very interested in following standards, and that
they're following developments in the X world very closely.  He said
that they would support X11 just as soon as the hardware vendors begin
to support X11 on their platforms.  Since Sun doesn't ship an X11
server, they don't ship an X11 client for Suns.

I pointed out that Sun never shipped X10 for their machines, so their
entire Sun X10 customer base is running on servers that they got for
free from MIT, and that there is already a group of potential
customers running free X11 servers from MIT.  He wasn't sure whether
they had received their X11 tape from MIT yet, but indicated that they
still wouldn't be interested in shipping a client product for a
machine until the hardware's vendor was shipping a server for it.

Has anyone else encountered this sort of situation?  Have you had any
luck inducing motion?  Can you share your technique with us?  Any
suggestions, other than gnawing on the telephone handset and banging
on my keyboard?
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
A dwarf is passing out somewhere in Detroit!