🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3201@peking.gdwb.oz.au> csb@gdwb.oz.au (Craig Bishop) writes:

>   I really don't think it is their fault. Sure everybody agrees
>   that NeWS (with a little work) was far superior to X. But then
>   you had every other Unix vendor jumping on the X11 band wagon
>   just because Sun was working on NeWS, X11 was it's only
>   competitor.

I think the fault was that there were very few programs that showed the
power of NeWS, and the "official" development environment was real
bad. Yes, Sun had to do X. Yes, NeWS was on a back burner for a while
(but TNT 3.0 did come out). NeWS is still a bastard child that no-one
wants to recognize. Without the developers, there are no applications.
Without the applications, there isn't a need for development tools.
Without the tools, there are no developers. 

NeWS can still be a very strong advantage for special applications. If
Sun continues to support it, NeWS can gain popularity by sheer mass.
Many of us are designing applications to run over a wide area network.
This is the time to go from group-ware to Enterprise-ware. Think of
all of those PC's running Solaris 2.0 and having a X/NeWS server.
Imagine a system that could dynamically download the necessary pieces
to improve performance over a serial line. Consider how much easier it
is to do this than to wait for X11R[6789] to come out.

Many people, including me, have complained about the development
environment of NeWS. Funny thing is, the Mac and PC had (have) HORRID
environments. A lot of applications still get developed. If enough
copies of something exist in the world, it will be used. I can see the
future - NeWS finally becomes "fashionable" and Sun announces they will
discontinue support. Heavy sigh.....
--
Bruce Barnett <barnett@crd.ge.com> uunet!crdgw1!barnett