Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu-cs!bzs
From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: Survey for NeWS Terminal Emulation
Message-ID: <30471@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 30 Apr 89 20:10:57 GMT
References: <8904260139.AA24538@scarlett.sun.com>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 36


>This brief questionnaire is intended to determine the NeWS-based
>terminal emulation requirements of X11/NeWS users.  Feedback from NeWS
>users will be used by development at Sun for planning bundled and
>unbundled NeWS-based emulators. Your input is very valuable, and is
>greatly appreciated by Sun.

Talk about re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic...!

What is the purpose of sending out questionairres like this? Are the
NeWS programmers at Sun so wedged they can't figure out if the
terminal emulator works or not? Or is someone looking for fuel to try
to get the attention of some bloated committee full of folks who have
lots of strong opinions despite the fact that they never use window
systems (aka Human Factors people, Marketing people and others you
could fire mercilessly and only improve the quality of life.)

Is it so hard to write a clean VTxxx emulator that Sun needs all sorts
of assurance that someone out there wants it? Is this a rational
question? Does someone there doubt there's a need for a standardized
terminal emulator?

And being as unbundling NeWS from SunOS has already more or less
thrown it into the junk heap of "nice tries" what's the plan now?  To
unbundle the terminal emulator? Does anyone at Sun have any clue as to
how much resistance to a product like this they create when its basic
format is unbundled, even if inexpensive?

There's something bizarre going on over there with this (almost)
product, a total loss of direction or some such thing.
-- 

	-Barry Shein, Software Tool & Die

There's nothing more terrifying to hardware vendors than
satisfied customers.