Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!SUN.COM!dshr
From: dshr@SUN.COM (David Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Abstracting the Windowing System Interface
Message-ID: <9002011637.AA04472@devnull.sun.com>
Date: 1 Feb 90 16:34:36 GMT
Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 16

> As proof of this claim, consider the Andrew software.  It runs daily on
> two different window systems (the old WM developed in the Andrew
> project, and X11).  WIth X11R4, they even run at comparable speeds and
> robustness (this was not true of the previous release).  The code has
> also been partially or fully ported to at least three other window
> systems, to my knowledge.  
> 
> The secret to Andrew's window-system-portability is that it defined a
> portable graphics layer that mapped well onto multiple window systems. 

The secret to Andrew's portability to X11 is that X11 was designed from the
start to be capable of supporting Andrew because some of the people who
designed WM also helped design X11.  If you want to make this case,
you need some less contrived example.

	David.