Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!fernwood!apple!portal!portal!cup.portal.com!spage
From: spage@cup.portal.com (S spage Page)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: NeWS artistry (was: Re: OSF/Motif vs NeWS vs...)
Message-ID: <26919@cup.portal.com>
Date: 14 Feb 90 07:36:55 GMT
References: <76870@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <15521@well.UUCP>
  <1504@ole.UUCP> <130335@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
  <1990Jan17.033134.4139@uncecs.edu> <1752@hjuxa.UUCP>
  <BOB.90Jan19125859@volitans.MorningStar.Com> <2716@bacchus.dec.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 51

Ken Lee, in an otherwise reasonable article, says
>>  ...  Also there is little
>>  technical difference between X and NeWS, except for very small machines
>>  (where X probably wins because of its less complex server) and very
>>  unusual machines (where NeWS probably wins because of its
>>  high-level-only graphics model).


NeWS is extrordinarily different from X11.  Its imaging model is to X11
as PostScript is to earlier printer control languages.

But disregard the PostScript imaging model, anyone can implement that.
There's more:

In NeWS, you program the server on the fly to do what you want by
sending it PostScript programs across the network.  It's like no other
window system, nor any other client-server model, ever conceived by man.

But you could argue that the same extension capability is there in any
bidirectional connection to a PostScript interpreter -- you can download
the NeWS class manager into any PostScript printer.  There's more:

The way the fundamentals of a window system (windows, input, damage)
plus extensions (lightweight processes, interprocess communication, and
message sending) are integrated into the PostScript language and
graphics model is so damn beautiful that once you touch the soul of
NeWS, programming another window system is like awakening from a dream.
It's that integration which Display PostScript lacks.  In any PostScript 
you can download a prolog which defines `drawGridLines'.  Only in NeWS 
can you hand the server the smarts to create windows, create user 
interface gadgets, fork input handlers, handle events, redefine the byte 
stream back from the server, and almost everything else needed for a
windowing application or toolkit.

You could argue that using PostScript as the extension language is a
dubious choice.  But having made that choice, the way in which James
Gosling and his associates created a network/extensible window system is
pure magic.

Software elegance and flat-out knock-em-dead technical wizardry never
won the "war", and I entirely concur that "The real reason for choosing,
in most sites, will be applications."  However, just because a server
running NeWS looks like an X11 server, don't denigrate it.  I sincerely
consider it an honor to have been involved, in however small a way, with
such a gem of software design.  You owe it to yourselves to cut through
the hype on both sides and appreciate how NeWS works.

Disclaimer: I worked at Sun and wrote the NeWS 1.0 manual.

=S Page