Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!wrs
From: wrs@Apple.COM (Walter Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT mail system // CMU Andrew System // "groupware" software
Message-ID: <159@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 27 Oct 88 04:56:39 GMT
References: <2463@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> <363@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu> <310@auspex.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 34

In article <310@auspex.UUCP> guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris) writes:
>>>I've heard rumours ... that NextStep is layered ontop
>>>of something akin to the andrew toolkit.
>>
>NeXTStEP, being more-or-less a window system toolkit (as opposed to an
>OS kernel or a file system), could well be based on the Andrew window
>system toolkit, even if the NeXT machine uses NFS rather than the Andrew
>file system. 

Having used Andrew for a few years, and having seen lots of screen dumps
from NeXT, I can say with great confidence that nExTsTeP has nothing at
all to do with the Andrew toolkit.  I believe it just on the basis of
NeXtsTEp's appearance and alleged behavior, but if you want solid technical
reasons, there are at least two:

	1) ATK is based on CMU's own object-oriented C preprocessor,
	   not Objective-C, and it wouldn't be easy to convert.

	2) Steve Jobs would probably throw up if he used any
	   application written with the Andrew toolkit.

To avoid completely alienating myself from all my (former?) friends at CMU
who may be working on ATK, I should mention that the current version was
designed by a large group of very smart researchers who apparently like
working quite independently, that making a truly smooth user interface
on a multitasking machine is a very difficult task, and that ATK is in many
ways a pioneer in the field of user interface toolkits.  But I don't think
any of that would change Steve's mind...

- Walt
--
Walter Smith				wrs@apple.com, apple!wrs
Apple Computer, Inc.			(408) 974-5892
My corporation disavows any knowledge of my activities on the network.