Text File

Aucbvax.1718 fa.apollo utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!dlw@MIT-AI Sat Jun 13 14:59:36 1981 Are Windows Necessary? The Lisp Machine has windows. They can be of arbitrary width and height, in pixels, and can be moved around and reshaped completely dynamically. They can have borders and labels. Right now, as I type to you, my screen consists of a Zmail "frame", which is split into four "panes" (sub-windows): a big one at the top containing your original message, a little one below that containing the "To:" and "Subject:" lines for this message, a big one below that in which I am editing this message (with an editor of full Emacs capability), and a little status and prompt one at the bottom.

We use windows for all the things you mentioned. We also extensively use menus, some of which reside permanently in a containing window, and some of which pop up dynamically as needed. There are many other related facilities which would take too long to discuss. The window system has been developed here over the course of several years; a great deal of effort has gone into it. The answer to your question is that they are extremely useful and convenient and make everything a lot easier to do. Whenever I return to PDP-10 time sharing systems I am always frustrated by the lack of a window system.

(Also, in reply to FJW: While it is true that sometimes a product ends up making a bigger splash in an unexpected market than the one it was targeted for, I belive that the OI market is really much bigger than the personal program development system market. There are lots more managers and clerks and secretaries than there are computer experts. So I still think Xerox will be much more interested in OI software development than in releasing Mesa and such.)

----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/

This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.