🚀 go-pugleaf

The problem with any window system (SUNview or X,
ferinstance) which does pixels is that it knows
the screen resolution.  This means that if you
develop a nice interface on a SUN 3/160, but
are going to deliver it on a SUN 3/260,
SURPRISE!!! When you bring it up on the 260,

	YOU CAN'T READ THE SCREEN

because the pixels shrunk 30%!!
This is particularly painful with fonts.

With NeWS, this DOESN'T HAPPEN because
you never deal with screen resolution -
you represent how big you want it to
really be.  If the server changes
resolution, NOTHING BREAKS.

As a person who makes a living building
systems which get shipped to end-users,
this kind of crap makes life difficult.
I would like my programmers to be
able to work on building the systems
without having to give them the same
hardware it's going to run on.  But
I guess in other worlds, everyone uses
the same hardware and noone cares about
whether software really works when moved
to a different environment. Note that I
did NOT say "can be made to work with
sufficient screwing around."  I said
"works" - out of the box, unmodified,
on color or b&w, at 72, 80, 100, 120,
200, or 300 dpi monitors (yes, kiddies, t
here are 300 dpi monitors in the world).

So, if these pixel-based systems ever 
evolve enough device independence to
cope with the world as it is,
let me know.

Until then, pass the Postscript.

	-Mike O'Dell