Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.windows.news Subject: Re: Is SUN a "PURE PLAYER" in window systems - SunView or OpenWindows??? Keywords: X, NeWS, Toolkits Message-ID: Date: 2 Jan 90 22:39:19 GMT References: <18YA-8xds13@ficc.uu.net> <8912302010.AA11723@super.super.org> <20966@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <20972@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 34 > Most of the NeWS applications I have seen posted here download their > own UI code into the server without even expecting any other application > will use these features. Well, except for the stuff that is designed to globally modify the environment, like pie menus. Or I think it was Bruce who brought up rounded windows. And NeWS has another big advantage... if you put enough of the UI in the server, you don't have to munge the rest of the program into the X event loop/callback mould. > I remain adamant that the problem can only > be solved by the adoption of a common toolkit that all application > writers can link against. Yes. yes yes. In fact I think that's pretty much what I've been saying. Or at least that's what I think I've been saying. Oh, you get the idea. > Work in this area is moving much faster > under X than under NeWS. In any case, I expect the underlying system > will not be very important once a dominant toolkit (like Motif) becomes > commonplace. Is Motif a toolkit or an interface? I got the impression that it's just a style guide like OpenLook. A dominant standard toolkit is something I'd like to see very much... but should it be so tightly tied to X? In programming in X, the UI tends to dominate the app. This tends to lead to unfortunate consequences. Like, say you want a program to go away for a while and do some work. Under X you lose the UI... and you can't even put up an "I'm busy" sign because it won't get displayed until you return to the event loop. -- `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. . 'U` Also or . "It was just dumb luck that Unix managed to break through the Stupidity Barrier and become popular in spite of its inherent elegance." -- gavin@krypton.sgi.com