Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!benoni From: benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: why no native unix?? Summary: NeWS Keywords: just asking Message-ID: <2447@ssc-vax.UUCP> Date: 21 Dec 88 20:42:56 GMT References: <18@draci.cs.uow.oz> <3ff525ae.14df5@ulsoy.engin.umich.edu> <1304@fai.UUCP> Organization: Boeing Aerospace Corp., Seattle WA Lines: 43 In article <1304@fai.UUCP>, ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian) writes: > This defeats the purpose: Consistency of interface is a key issue. > For exactly the same reason, we are not considering the purchase > of the X/News merge from Sun. News might be wonderful, but it only > works on a Sun. NeWS is the basis for other machines as well. Look no further than the Silicon Graphics 3D workstations, Raster Technologies 3D, etc. Further, there are 66+ NeWS licensees...no doubt a smaller number than X ... yet NeWS is available on PCs and Macs also. X/NeWS will also be available on PC and Macs. X11/NeWS will be part of Unix System V.4 (the only *real* future Unix ;-) so it will not be "only" on Sun's ... especially at the rate that companies are joining Unix Intl (archer group). The X/NeWS server gives the option of whether you want to use one or the other or both...both run at native speeds ... and both understand their individual protocols...both will have Open Look toolkits (so the consistancy of interface IS preserved) and both operate under Open Look user interface rules (again consistancy of interface IS preserved)... The interesting thing, is that X/NeWS by operating under the Open Look interface will maintain window compatibilty between X and NeWS windows (things like cut and paste will work between X and NeWS windows) and it will be hard to distinguish what's an X and what's a NeWS window ... NeWS applications (the interior of the window frame :-) will be capable of doing a number of things much more easily than X applications - but that is due to programmatic interface and language advantages of NeWS. Thus, compatibility between other X-only systems and X/NeWS systems will be no problem, consistancy of interface will also not be a problem - as everything will have the same user interface (Open Look), and compatibilty between X and NeWS windows will also exist as they share the same window tree. Comparing Aegis (which resides on the Apollo only) with X/NeWS (which will reside on a host of machines and be part of Unix) and citing interface inconsistancies is probably not an appropriate comparison. Especially since the interface of X/NeWS will be similar across all Unix System V.4 machines. X/NeWS offers a valuable choice that is missing on Apollos, I would hope that Apollo will eventually see the light. ------ Naturally My Opinions Are My Own.