Xref: utzoo comp.windows.news:1031 comp.lang.postscript:1331 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!nyser!cmx!krempel From: krempel@cmx.npac.syr.edu (Henry BJ Krempel) Newsgroups: comp.windows.news,comp.lang.postscript Subject: NeWS and DPS, who wins? Message-ID: <926@cmx.npac.syr.edu> Date: 22 Dec 88 03:48:54 GMT Reply-To: krempel@cmx.npac.syr.edu (Henry BJ Krempel) Organization: Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse NY Lines: 36 This is another perfect example of the inherent contradiction that exists when a "standard" is created and maintained by a commercial organisation. The "standard" PostScript is missing a few key features to make it useful to drive a display. Sun has put time and effort into the product that first made screen PostScript possible: NeWS. After Sun was through with the "feasibility study," Adobe decided that screen PostScript was interesting and solved these problems again, in a new and incompatible manner. Adobe feels that it is in its' best interest to create an incompatible system, and this may unfortunately seem to be true, with possible license fees coming in for systems running under both X and NeWS. (This can never happen: I'm sure some NeWS hacker will put something together) If Sun creates a Display PostScript compatibility mode, Adobe will continually create new incompatible undocumented features, with Sun development continually in Catch-Up mode. This is the old dilemma between open and proprietary systems, and this is the way it was in the bad old days. "Doesn't your emulator support extended REV 2 gobbledy-gook? Oh well, I guess you made a mistake" I can here those doors slamming now "the right choice." Who will win "the fight"? I don't know, but I know that with things the way they are, we all lose. I'm afraid there just aren't enough PostScript programmers on this planet to support two standards, and two window systems (NeWS and NeXTstep) whose useage and availability pales in comparison with X. We don't get fooled again! or do we?-- Henry B. J. Krempel Computing and Network Services (CNS) Syracuse University 250 Machinery Hall, Syracuse, N.Y. 13244