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- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!bone.think.com!paperboy.osf.org!june.osf.org!dbl
- From: dbl@osf.org (David Lewis)
- Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,news.answers,comp.answers
- Subject: comp.windows.x Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 1/7
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 2 Oct 1996 20:15:07 GMT
- Organization: Open Software Foundation
- Lines: 1073
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Distribution: world
- Expires: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 00:00:00 GMT
- Message-ID: <52uigb$bs0@paperboy.osf.org>
- Reply-To: faq%craft@uunet.uu.net (X FAQ maintenance address)
- NNTP-Posting-Host: june.osf.org
- Summary: useful information about the X Window System
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.windows.x:110953 news.answers:83413 comp.answers:21524
-
- Archive-name: x-faq/part1
- Last-modified: 1996/09/26
-
- This article and several following contain the answers to some Frequently Asked
- Questions (FAQ) often seen in comp.windows.x. It is posted to help reduce
- volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general
- interest.
-
- Please redistribute this article!
-
- This article includes answers to the following questions, which are loosely
- grouped into categories. Questions marked with a + indicate questions new to
- this issue; those with significant changes of content since the last issue are
- marked by !:
-
- 0) TOPIC: BASIC INFORMATION SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS
- 1) What books and articles on X are good for beginners?
- 2) What courses on X and various X toolkits are available?
- 3) What conferences on X are coming up?
- 4)! What X-related public mailing lists are available?
- 5) How can I meet other X developers? (What X user groups are there?)
- 6) What related FAQs are available?
- 7) How do I ask a net-question so as to maximize helpful responses?
- 8)! What publications discussing X are available?
- 9) What are these common abbreviations/acronyms?
- 10) What is the ICCCM? (How do I write X-friendly applications?)
- 11) What is the X Consortium, and how do I join?
- 12) Just what are OPEN LOOK and Motif?
- 13)! What is "low-bandwidth X" (X.fast/LBX)? XRemote? PPP? SLIP? CSLIP?
- 14)+ TOPIC: X CONSORTIUM FUTURES
- 15)+ What's the official word from the X Consortium?
- 16)+ What happens to X? to Broadway? still free?
- 17)+ Why is this happening?
- 18)+ Can X11R6.1 be a freeware base? Will future X versions be free?
- 19) TOPIC: USING X IN DAY-TO-DAY LIFE
- 20) What are all these window managers? (Where can I get a "virtual" wm?)
- 21) Why does my X session exit when I kill my window manager (sic)?
- 22) Can I save the state of my X session, like toolplaces does?
- 23) How do I use another window manager with DEC's session manager?
- 24) How do I change the keyboard auto-repeat rate?
- 25) How do I remap the keys on my keyboard to produce a string?
- 26) How do I make a screendump or print my application (including menus)?
- 27) How do I make a color PostScript screendump of the X display?
- 28) How do I make a screendump without having an X display?
- 29) How do I make a screendump including the X cursor?
- 30)! How do I convert or view Mac/TIFF/GIF/Sun/PICT/img/FAX images in X?
- 31) Where can I get an X-based 3-D object viewer?
- 32) How can I change the titlebar of my terminal window?
- 33) Where can I find the xterm control sequences?
- 34) How can I use characters above ASCII 127 in xterm ?
- 35) Why are my xterm menus so small (sic) ?
- 36)! How can I control the mouse with the keyboard?
- 37) How can I print the current X selection?
- 38) Where are the resources loaded from?
- 39) How does Xt use environment variables in loading resources?
- 40) How to I have xdm put a picture behind the log-in window?
- 41) Why isn't my PATH set when xdm runs my .xsession file?
- 42) How do I keep my $DISPLAY when I rlogin to another machine?
- 43) How can I design my own font?
- 44) Why does adding a font to the server not work (sic)?
- 45) How do I convert a ".snf" font back to ".bdf" font?
- 46) What is a general method of getting a font in usable format?
- 47) How do I use DECwindows fonts on my non-DECwindows server?
- 48) How do I get a font name from the structure?
- 49) How can I set backgroundPixmap in a defaults file?
- 50) How can I make small multi-color pixmap images? (What is XPM?)
- 51) Why can't I override translations? Only the first item works. (sic)
- 52) How can I have a clock show different timezones?
- 53) I have xmh, but it doesn't work. Where can I get MH?
- 54) Why am I suddenly unable to connect to my Sun X server?
- 55) Why don't the R5 PEX demos work on my mono screen?
- 56) How do I get my Sun Type-[45] keyboard fully supported by Xsun?
- 57) How do I report bugs in X?
- 58) Why do I get "Warning: Widget class version mismatch"?
- 59)! Why does my SPARC 4 with the TCX fail?
- 60) Why does my SPARC say "Mapping cg3c: No such device or address"?
- 61) Where can I find a dictionary server for xwebster?
- 62)! What desktop managers are available?
- 63) How can I use a Web browser as a help system?
- 64)+ How can I retrieve resource values from an application?
- 65) TOPIC: OBTAINING X AND RELATED SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
- 66) Is X public-domain software?
- 67) How compatible are X11R3, R4, R5, R6? What changes are there?
- 68)! What is Fresco? When is Fresco rumored to be available?
- 69) Does Fresco work with g++ 2.5.8?
- 70) What is Broadway?
- 71) Where can I get X11R6.1 (source and/or binaries)?
- 72) Where can I get X11R6 (source and/or binaries)?
- 73) Where can I get X11R5 (source and/or binaries)?
- 74) Where can I get XDM's Wraphelp.c ?
- 75) Where can I get patches to X11?
- 76) What is the xstuff mail-archive?
- 77) Where can I get OSF/Motif?
- 78) Does Motif work with X11R4? X11R5? X11R6?
- 79) Where can I get toolkits implementing OPEN LOOK?
- 80) Where can I get other X sources? (including R5 modifications)
- 81)! Where can I get interesting widgets?
- 82) Where can I get a good file-selector widget?
- 83) Where can I find a hypertext widget in source code?
- 84) What widget is appropriate to use as a drawing canvas?
- 85) What is the current state of the world in X terminals?
- 86) Where can I get an X server with a touchscreen or lightpen?
- 87) Where can I get an X server on a PC (DOS or Unix)?
- 88) Where can I get an X server on a Macintosh running MacOS?
- 89) Where can I get X for the Amiga?
- 90) Where can I get a serial-based X server for connecting from home?
- 91) Where can I get a fast X server for a workstation?
- 92) Where can I get a server for my high-end Sun graphics board?
- 93) Where can I get an "X terminal" server for my low-end Sun 3/50?
- 94) What terminal emulators other than xterm are available?
- 95) Does xterm offer colored text or a blinking cursor?
- 96)! Where can I get an X-based editor or word-processor?
- 97)! Where can I get an X-based mailer?
- 98)! Where can I get an X-based paint/draw program?
- 99) Where can I get an X-based plotting program?
- 100)! Where can I get an X-based graph-drawing program?
- 101)! Where can I get an X-based spreadsheet?
- 102) Where can I get X-based project-management software?
- 103)! Where can I get an X-based PostScript previewer?
- 104) Where can I get an X-based GKS package?
- 105) Where can I get an X-based IRIS GL package?
- 106) Where can I get an X-based OpenGL package?
- 107) Where can I get an X-based PEX package?
- 108) Where can I get an X-based TeX or DVI previewer?
- 109) Where can I get an X-based troff previewer?
- 110)! Where can I get a WYSIWYG interface builder (or other shortcuts)?
- 111) Where can I find X tools callable from shell scripts?
- 112)! Where can I get an X-based debugger?
- 113) Is there a "pseudo-tty" or fake X display I can use?
- 114)! How can I "tee" an X program identically to several displays?
- 115)! Can I use C++ with X11? Motif? XView?
- 116) Where can I obtain alternate language bindings to X/Xt/Motif?
- 117)! Where can I obtain alternate X toolkits?
- 118) TOPIC: BUILDING THE X DISTRIBUTION [topic needs updating to R6]
- 119) What's a good source of information on configuring the X build?
- 120) Why doesn't X11R6 work on Solaris with GCC 2.7.0?
- 121) Why doesn't my Sun with a cg6 work with R5?
- 122) What are these build problems with Solaris 2.5?
- 123) Why doesn't my Sun with SunOS 4.1 know about _dlsym, etc.?
- 124) What is this "_get_wmShellWidgetClass undefined" error?
- 125) Why don't xterm or xinit work on Solaris 2.4?
- 126) What's this problem with undefined _X symbols on SunOS 4.1.3?
- 127) Why does cc get used when I build X11R5 with gcc?
- 128) What are these I/O errors running X built with gcc?
- 129) What are these problems compiling the X11R5 server on SunOS 4.1.1?
- 130) Can OW 3.0 OLIT programs run with R5 Xt? (_XtQString undefined)
- 131) How do I get around the SunOS 4.1 security hole?
- 132) How do I get around the frame-buffer security hole?
- 133) TOPIC: BUILDING X PROGRAMS
- 134) What is Imake?
- 135) Where can I get imake?
- 136) I have a program with an Imakefile but no Makefile. What to do?
- 137) Why can't I link to the Xlib shape routines?
- 138) What are these problems with "_XtInherit not found" on the Sun?
- 139) TOPIC: PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS AND PUZZLES
- 140) Why doesn't my program get the keystrokes I select for (sic)?
- 141) How do I deiconify a window?
- 142) How do I figure out what window manager is running?
- 143) Is there a skeleton X program available?
- 144) How can I incorporate an Xlib program in my Xt program?
- 145) Why does XtGetValues not work for me (sic)?
- 146) Why don't XtConfigureWidget/XtResizeWidget/XtMoveWidget work?
- 147)+ How do I check whether an Xt widget is still valid?
- 148) Why can't I get data back in my callback procedure?
- 149) Why isn't there an XtReparentWidget call like XReparentWindow?
- 150) I'm writing a widget and can't use a float as a resource value.
- 151) Is this a memory leak in the X11R4 XtDestroyWidget()?!
- 152) Is this a memory leak in the X11R4 deletion of work procs?!
- 153) Why does the process size of my X programs go up,up,up?
- 154) Are callbacks guaranteed to be called in the order registered?
- 155) Why doesn't XtDestroyWidget() actually destroy the widget?
- 156) How can I open multiple displays with Xt?
- 157) How do I query the user synchronously using Xt?
- 158) How do I determine the name of an existing widget?
- 159) Why do I get a BadDrawable error drawing to XtWindow(widget)?
- 160) Where can I get documentation on Xaw, the Athena widget set?
- 161) What's the difference between actions and callbacks?
- 162) How do I simulate a button press/release event for a widget?
- 163) Can I make Xt or Xlib calls from a signal handler?
- 164)! What are these "Xlib: unexpected async reply" errors?
- 165) What are these "Xlib sequence lost" errors?
- 166) How can my Xt program handle socket, pipe, or file input?
- 167) Why doesn't my Xt timer go off when it is supposed to (sic) ?
- 168) What's this R6 error: X Toolkit Error: NULL ArgVal in XtGetValues?
- 169) Why do I get a BadMatch error when calling XGetImage?
- 170) How can my application tell if it is being run under X?
- 171) How do I make a "busy cursor" while my application is computing?
- 172) How do I fork without hanging my parent X program?
- 173) Why doesn't anything appear when I run this simple program?
- 174) What is the difference between a Screen and a screen?
- 175) Can XGetWindowAttributes get a window's background pixel/pixmap?
- 176) How do I create a transparent window?
- 177) Why doesn't GXxor produce mathematically-correct color values?
- 178) Why does every color I allocate show up as black?
- 179) Why do I get a protocol error when creating a cursor (sic)?
- 180) Why can't my program get a standard colormap?
- 181) Why doesn't the shared-memory extension appear to work?
- 182) Why does the pixmap I copy to the screen show up as garbage?
- 183) How do I get the width/height of an existing pixmap?
- 184) How can I most quickly send an image to the X server?
- 185) How do I check whether a window ID is valid?
- 186) Can I have two applications draw to the same window?
- 187) Why can't my program work with tvtwm or swm?
- 188) Can I rely on a server which offers backing store?
- 189) How do I catch the "close window" event to avoid "fatal IO error"?
- 190) How do I keep a window from being resized by the user?
- 191) How do I keep a window in the foreground at all times?
- 192) How do I make text and bitmaps blink in X?
- 193) How do I get a double-click in Xlib?
- 194) How do I render rotated text?
- 195) Why doesn't my multi-threaded X program work (sic) ?
- 196) How can I ensure that only one instance of my application is running?
- 197) How can I have two applications communicate via the X server?
- 198) Where can I get information on internationalizing applications?
- 199) What is the X Registry? (How do I reserve names?)
-
- If you have suggestions or corrections for any of these answers or any
- additional information, please send them directly to uunet!craft!faq;
- the information will be included in the next revision (or possibly the one
- after that; thanks for the many suggestions which haven't been incorporated
- yet).
-
- This version of the FAQ is in the process of having outdated information
- replaced by R6 information.
-
- This posting is intended to be distributed monthly. New versions are
- archived on ftp.x.org (in contrib/faqs) and rtfm.mit.edu and are also
- available from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and archive-server@nic.switch.ch
- (send "help"). HTML versions seem to be at
- http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/x-faq/top.html.
-
- ftp.x.org was previously known as export.lcs.mit.edu; x.org was previously
- known as expo.lcs.mit.edu. The general WWW server for the X Consortium is
- http://www.x.org/.
-
- The information contained herein has been gathered from a variety of sources.
- In many cases attribution has been lost; if you would like to claim
- responsibility for a particular item, please let me know.
-
- Conventions used below: telephone numbers tend to be Bell-system unless
- otherwise noted; prices on items are not included; email addresses are those
- that work from the US.
-
- X Window System and Fresco are trademarks of X Consortium, Inc. Other
- trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
-
- This posting is copyright (c) 1996 by David B. Lewis, USA. All rights
- reserved. Permission is hereby granted to read and distribute this posting
- for non-commercial purposes. Permission to use this material for any other
- purpose must first be obtained in writing from the author.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 0) TOPIC: BASIC INFORMATION SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 1) What books and articles on X are good for beginners?
-
- A bibliography containing cites of all known reference books and how-to
- manuals and also cites of selected technical articles on X and X programming
- is regularly posted to comp.windows.x; it is ftp-able as
- ftp.x.org:/contrib/docs/Xbibliography.ps
- gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/X11/R5-contrib/Xbibliography.
- landru.unx.com:/pub/X11/
- The current maintainer is Steve Mikes, smikes%topgun@uunet.uu.net
- (smikes@unx.com).
-
- Here is an unordered set of the reference books and tutorials most useful for
- beginners; most appear on that list [comments are gathered from a variety of
- places and are unattributable]:
-
- Asente, Paul J., and Swick, Ralph R., "X Window System Toolkit, The Complete
- Programmer's Guide and Specification", Digital Press, 1990. The bible on Xt.
- A treasury of information, excellent and invaluable. Distributed by Digital
- Press, ISBN 1-55558-051-3, order number EY-E757E-DP; and by Prentice-Hall,
- ISBN 0-13-972191-6. Also available through DEC Direct at 1-800-DIGITAL. [The
- examples are on ftp.x.org in R5contrib/ as asente-swick.examples.tar.Z. They
- were also posted to comp.sources.x as xt-examples/part0[1-5].]
-
- Jones, Oliver, Introduction to the X Window System, Prentice-Hall, 1988,
- 1989. ISBN 0-13-499997-5. An excellent introduction to programming with
- Xlib. Written with the programmer in mind, this book includes many practical
- tips that are not found anywhere else. This book is not as broad as the
- O'Reilly Xlib tutorial, but Jones is an experienced X programmer and this
- shows in the quality and depth of the material in the book.
-
- Young, Doug. "The X Window System: Applications and Programming with Xt
- (Motif Version)," Prentice Hall, 1989 (ISBN 0-13-497074-8). The excellent
- tutorial "X Window System Programming and Applications with Xt," (ISBN
- 0-13-972167-3) updated for Motif. Sources are on ftp.x.org in
- R5contrib/young.tar.Z. A Motif 1.2 version of this book is also out; see
- ftp.x.org in contrib/book_examples/young.motif2.tar.Z.
-
- Young, Doug and John Pew, "The X Window System: Programming and Applications
- with Xt, OPEN LOOK Edition" (ISBN 0-13-982992-X). The tutorial rewritten for
- OLIT, with new examples and drag/drop information. [Examples are in your
- OpenWindows 3 distribution in $OPENWINHOME/share/src/olit/olitbook.]
-
- Heller, Dan and Paula Ferguson. "Motif Programmers Manual". The 6th volume
- in the O'Reilly series covers application programming with Motif 1.2 and
- earlier, including UIL; it's full of good examples (ISBN 1-56592-016-3).
- Volume 6B is a reference book on Motif and UIL (ISBN ISBN 1-56592-038-4).
- [The examples are available on uunet in the nutshell archives.]
-
- Scheifler, Robert, and James Gettys, with Jim Flowers and David Rosenthal, "X
- Window System: The Complete Reference to Xlib, X Protocol, ICCCM, XLFD, X
- Version 11, Release 5, Third Edition," Digital Press, 1992. "The Bible" in
- its latest revision, an enhanced version of X documentation by the authors of
- the Xlib documentation. This is the most complete published description of
- the X programming interface and X protocol. It is the primary reference work
- and is not introductory tutorial documentation; additional tutorial works
- will usually be needed by most new X programmers. Digital Press order
- EY-J802E-DP, ISBN 0-13-971201-1.
-
- Nye, Adrian, "Xlib Programming Manual, Volume 1" and "Xlib Reference Manual,
- Volume 2," O'Reilly and Associates. The first volume is a tutorial with
- broad coverage of Xlib, and the second contains reference pages for Xlib
- functions and many useful reference appendices. Both cover X11R5 (and R4).
- ISBN 0-937175-26-9 (volume 1) and ISBN 0-937175-27-7 (volume 2).
-
- Nye, Adrian, and Tim O'Reilly, "X Toolkit Programming Manual, Volume 4,"
- O'Reilly and Associates, 1989, 1992. The folks at O'Reilly give their
- comprehensive treatment to programming with the Xt Intrinsics, using the
- Athena widgets in the examples; R5 versions are now available, as is a Motif
- 1.2 version (Volume 4M).
-
- O'Reilly, Tim, ed., "X Toolkit Reference Manual, Volume 5," O'Reilly and
- Associates. A professional reference manual for the X11R5 and X11R4 Xt.
-
- Mansfield, Niall. "The X Window System: A User's Guide," Addison-Wesley,
- 1989. A tutorial introduction to using X, now upgraded for R4. ISBN
- 0-201-51341-2.
-
- Quercia, Valerie and Tim O'Reilly. "X Window System User's Guide," O'Reilly
- and Associates. A tutorial introduction to using X. ISBN 0-937175-36-6.
- Covers R5; available in Athena and Motif editions.
-
- Mui, Linda and Eric Pearce. "X Window System Administrator's Guide for X11 R4
- and R5" [ORA Volume 8]. Help for X users and administrators. ISBN
- 0-937175-83-8.
-
- Drafts of John Ousterhout's book on TCL/TK are on sprite.berkeley.edu
- (128.32.150.27) in /tcl. The final book was published by Addison-Wesley, ISBN
- #0-201-63337-X.
-
- (Prentice-Hall ordering is 201-767-5937. O'Reilly ordering is 800-998-9938
- or 707-829-0515; ORA may also be contacted via email at order@ora.com or by
- logging into gopher.ora.com as gopher.)
-
- In addition, check the X11R4 and X11R5 core distribution in doc/tutorials for
- some useful papers and tutorials, particularly the file answers.txt. "Late
- Night's Top Ten X11 Questions" by Dave Lemke (lemke@ncd.com) and Stuart Marks
- (smarks@sun.com) answers other common questions and some of these here in
- more detail.
-
- A single volume, "Programmer's Supplement for R5" by David Flanagan, provides
- an overview of new R5 features; it includes man pages for Xlib, Xt, and Xmu.
- As of 10/93, its contents have been merged into other O'Reilly volumes, and
- it is out of print. [ISBN 0-937175-86-2]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 2) What courses on X and various X toolkits are available?
-
- An on-line WWW X course is at
- http://www.cs.curtin.edu.au/units/cg252-502/src/notes/html/
-
- Another is at:
- http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk:80/~aug/FastTrack/
-
- Motif tutorials are at:
- http://www.iftech.com
-
- AT&T offers training in Xlib and in the Xol set. Contact AT&T Corporate
- Education & Training for more info; 1-800-TRAINER in the USA.
-
- BIM Educational Services offers training in X administration and in
- programming with Xt/Motif and Open Windows; the courses are given near
- Brussels. Info: edu@sunbim.be, voice +32-(0)2-7595925, fax +32-(0)2-7599209.
-
- Bluestone Consulting, Inc. offers several multi-day, hands-on training
- courses in X, Xt, Motif, C, C++, and UIM/X. Information is available at
- 609-727-4600 or blustone!info@uunet.uu.net.
-
- Communica Software Consultants offers three-day hands-on courses in X
- designed for the X Window System developer and programmer. Contact Chris
- Clarkson, telephone 61 8 3732523, e-mail communica@communica.oz.au. [12/92]
-
- Cora Computer Technologies (516-485-7343) offers several courses.
-
- GHCT offers a one week lecture/lab course for programmers designed by Douglas
- Young based on his book "The X Window System: Programming and Applications
- with Xt, OSF/Motif Edition". Information: Brian Stell (415-966-8805 or
- ghct!brian@sgi.com).
-
- GHG offers a range of courses on X and Motif. Information: 713-488-8806 or
- training-info@ghg.hou.tx.us.
-
- Hands On Learning has live training and self-paced video workshops on topics
- such as using and/or programming X, Xlib, Xm, and Xt. Information:
- 617-272-0088, 800-248-9133.
-
- Hewlett-Packard (1-800-HPCLASS; or contact your local HP center) offers a
- 2-day "Introduction to X", a 5-day Xlib course, a 1-day Xt and Motif 1.1
- seminar, and a 5-day Motif lab course.
-
- Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., offers several multi-day, hands-on
- courses on X, Xt, and the Xaw and Motif widget sets, in particular.
- Information is available at 617-621-0060 and info@ics.com.
-
- Intelligent Visual Computing teaches several lab courses on-site for Motif
- and XView. IVC is at 1-800-776-2810 or +1 919-481-1353 or at info@ivc.com.
-
- Iris Computing Laboratories offers five-day Xlib and Xt courses. Info:
- +1-505-988-2670 or info@spectro.com.
-
- IXI Limited (+44 223 462 131) offers regular X training courses for both
- programmers and non-technical managers. See also: Unipalm, below.
-
- Learning Tree International offers a four-day course in X Window System
- applications development, including Xlib and some information on Motif. For
- more info call 800-824-9155 (213-417-3484); 613-748-7741 in Canada. Courses
- are offered in major North American cities; also in London, Stockholm, Tokyo,
- and elsewhere.
-
- Lurnix offers several 3- to 5-day courses on using X and programming with
- Xlib and Motif. Information is available at 800-875-4478.
-
- Non Standard Logics (+33 (1) 43 36 77 50; requests@nsl.fr) offers courses on
- programming with Xlib, Motif, and creating Motif widgets.
-
- OSF Educational Services (617-621-8778) offers one-day seminars and one-week
- Motif lab courses.
-
- John A. Pew offers a 5-day course on OLIT, possibly based on his book on that
- subject; 408-224-5739.
-
- SCO (+44 923 816344, scol-info@sco.COM) offers training for its Open Desktop
- (Motif) environment in the UK and Europe.
-
- Software Pundits (617-270-0639) offers a range of courses.
-
- Technology Exchange (617-944-3700) offers a 4-day Xlib/Xt/Motif course.
-
- Alsys (formerly TeleSoft) is now offering a 1-day plus 3-day seminar on X and
- Motif. Information: Bruce Sherman (619-457-2700, bds@telesoft.com).
-
- Unipalm XTech offers OSF's 5-day Motif course and a 1-day overview on X.
- Information: Unipalm Training at +44 952 211797, xtech@unipalm.co.uk.
-
- The University of Edinburgh is developing a series of courses on X and
- related topics primarily for non-profit-making training in academia but also
- for commercial use. Information: Cliff Booth, Unipalm Ltd, phone +44 223
- 420002, fax +44 223 426868.
-
- Various other vendors are also beginning to offer X training, usually
- specific to a proprietary toolkit or to Xt and a proprietary widget set: DEC
- is offering Xlib courses; Sun offers an XView course.
-
- Various universities are offering short X courses or overviews: UCLA,
- Dartmouth, University of Lowell, University of Canberra (within Australia:
- 062-522422), UC Santa Cruz Extension (408-281-4823, mark@t4p.com) ...
-
- Among the best places to find courses are at the various Unix conferences --
- Uniforum, Usenix, Unix Expo, the X Technical Conference, the ACM tutorial
- weeks, &c.
-
- In addition, the X Consortium posts approximately quarterly a list of
- unendorsed speakers and consultants who can provide talks on a variety of X
- topics.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 3) What conferences on X are coming up?
-
- The fourth annual Tcl/Tk workshop, sponsored by the USENIX Association, was to
- be held July 10-13, 1996 in Monterey, California, to bring together current
- Tcl/Tk researchers and practitioners and to plan for future work.
- Information: USENIX Conference Office 22672 Lambert Street, Suite 613 Lake
- Forest CA 92630 (714) 588-8649 Fax: (714) 588-9706 email:
- conference@usenix.org URL: http://www.usenix.org
-
- The European X User Group holds an annual conference which typically includes
- includes paper presentations and a vendor exhibit; the conference is usually
- held in October. Information: EXUG '94, PO Box 458, Cambridge, CB4 4AA Tel:
- 0954 789095, Fax: 0954 781797, Email: info@exug.demon.co.uk, WWW:
- http://www.nads.de/EXUG/ .
-
- The X Technical Conference includes tutorials and technical talks. It is now
- held in February in San Jose, CA. Registration information is available from
- conference@x.org, 617-374-1025. Other information is typically on ftp.x.org
- in /pub/DOCS/XConsortium/ (also available via http://www.x.org ).
-
- The XWorld Conference and Exhibition includes tutorials, panels,
- presentations and vendor exhibits. It is typically held in March in New York
- City. Information: SIGS Publication Group at 212-274-9135; information on
- XWorld95 is available via
- http://www.sigs.com/conferences/xw95/xw95main.html .
-
- The Motif/CDE show is held each year in Washington, DC, around the time of
- FedUnix. It offers courses, tutorials and paper presentations. Information:
- +1 301-596-8800, fax +1 301-596-8803, http://www.mcsp.com/OSW-FedUNIX .
- Registration material can be obtained from oswinfo@mcsp.com.
-
- The Xhibition conference is cancelled for 1996; no other plans have
- been announced (by xhibit@ics.com).
-
- The Andrew Technical Conference was to be held September 21-22, 1995 in
- Pittsburgh. Info: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~AUIS/cfp.html .
-
- Other trade shows -- UnixExpo, Uniforum, Siggraph -- show an increasing
- presence of X, including tutorials and exhibits.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 4)! What X-related public mailing lists are available?
-
- The xpert mailing list is the general, public mailing list on X maintained by
- the X Consortium. The mailings are gatewayed, so xpert is almost identical to
- the comp.windows.x Usenet newsgroup.
-
- *** If you get comp.windows.x, you don't need to ***
- *** be added to the xpert mailing list. ***
-
- Otherwise, you can join the list to receive X information electronically. It
- is best to find a local distribution; perhaps someone within your company is
- already receiving the mailing. As a last resort, send mail to
- xpert-request@x.org with a valid return electronic address.
-
- The xannounce mailing list carries major X announcements, such as new
- releases (including public patches from the Consortium), public reviews,
- adoption of standards by the X Consortium, and conference announcements. It
- does NOT carry advertisements, source code, patches, or questions. If you
- already receive the Usenet news group comp.windows.x.announce or the xpert
- mailing list, you don't need to be added to the xannounce mailing list.
- Otherwise, to subscribe, send a request to xannounce-request@x.org. Note:
- only redistribution addresses will be accepted for this list -- i.e. no
- personal addresses. If you wish to receive xannounce yourself, please contact
- your mail administrator to set up a local redistribution list and to put you
- on it.
-
- comp.windows.x.apps is not gatewayed to a mailing list.
-
- In addition, the X Consortium sponsors these public lists:
- bug-clx CLX bug reports and discussions
- x-ada X and ada
- x11-3d X and 3d graphics
- ximage image processing and X
- xvideo discussion of video extensions for X
- x-agent protocols for external agents (e.g. editres)
-
- To subscribe to any of the above mailing lists, send mail to the list with
- "-request" appended; this example adds pat@mumble.widget.com to the xpert
- mailing list:
-
- % mail xpert-request@x.org
- Subject: (none needed)
- subscribe xpert pat@mumble.widget.com
- ^D
-
- To unsubscribe:
-
- % mail xpert-request@x.org
- Subject: (none needed)
- unsubscribe
- ^D
-
- The Fresco list was made public 3/94; send to "requests@x.org" a message
- containing "subscribe fresco <address>".
-
- Other lists include:
-
- A mailing list discussing the Andrew User Interface System (formerly Andrew
- Toolkit) is maintained by the Andrew Consortium. To subscribe, write to
- info-andrew-request@andrew.cmu.edu and specify whether you want messages in
- Andrew format or ASCII. The ASCII versions are copied to netnews group
- comp.soft-sys.andrew.
-
- A mailing list discussing the TeleUSE builder can be subscribed to by sending
- a request to teleusers-request@alsys.com.
-
- A mailing list discussing the UIM/X builder can be subscribed to by sending a
- subject line of "subscribe" to uimx-request@ivev.bau.tu-bs.de.
-
- A mailing list to address issues of using Motif on Sun workstations is
- sponsored by Freedom Software at freedom@telerama.pgh.pa.us.
-
- A mailing list for the Motif-C++ bindings is sponsored by Ronald van Loon;
- subscribe to motif++-request@motif.xs4all.nl.
-
- A mailing list for topics related to the XPM pixmap-format is sponsored by
- Arnaud Le Hors, now of the X Consortium; send to
- xpm-talk-request@sophia.inria.fr for information.
-
- A mailing list for SUIT users is available from
- suit-users-request@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu. (This group is gatewayed to
- the newsgroup comp.windows.suit.)
-
- A mailing list for imake users is available by sending "subscribe imake-talk"
- to imake-talk-request@primate.wisc.edu.
-
- A mailing list for topics related to Motif is available by sending subscribe
- requests to motif-request@lobo.gsfc.nasa.gov. (This group is gatewayed to the
- newsgroup comp.windows.x.motif.)
-
- A mailing list (amiga-x11@nic.funet.fi) for topics related to the port of X11
- to the Amiga can be subscribed by sending to mailserver@nic.funet.fi a
- message containing
- Subject: Adding myself to AMIGA-X11
- SUBS AMIGA-X11 Your Real Name
-
- A mailing list for MetaCard users is available by sending to
- listserv@grot.starconn.com a message containing
- subscribe metacard-list firstname lastname
- quit
-
- A mailing list for Wafe users is available by sending to
- listserv@wu-wien.ac.at a message containing
- subscribe Wafe <Your Name>
- help
-
- A mailing list discussing the fvwm window manager can be subscribed to
- by sending to majordomo@shrug.org a message containing
- subscribe fvwm
-
- A mailing list discussing the xemacs editor can be subscribed to by sending a
- request to xemacs-request@xemacs.org.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 5) How can I meet other X developers? (What X user groups are there?)
-
- O'Reilly and Associates sponsors a mailing list for the use of X user group
- organizers; subscribe by sending to listserv@ora.com the message "subscribe
- xgroups your@internet.address".
-
- Local area X user's groups are listed in Issue 4 of O'Reilly's X Resource
- journal.
-
- The French X User Group is called AFUX and is based in Sophia Antipolis by
- CERICS. Information can be obtained from Miss Vasseur or Miss Forest; BP 148;
- 157, rue Albert Einstein; 06561 Valbonne Cedex; Phone: +33 93 95 45 00 / 45
- 01; Fax: +33 93 95 48 57. [10/90]
-
- The European X User Group was formed in 1989 to represent X users in Europe.
- It holds technical conferences at regular intervals. The EXUG also publishes
- a regular newsletter which is distributed free of charge to members. The
- EXUG also runs a email mailing list for members which is frequently used to
- address issues of European interest in X. Info: Tel: +44 (0) 954 789095;
- Fax: +44 (0) 954 781797; Email: info@exug.demon.co.uk; WWW:
- http://www.nads.de/EXUG/ .
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 6) What related FAQs are available?
-
- This is the general comp.windows.x FAQ. Most FAQs are on rtfm.mit.edu; the
- ones mentioned below are typically also on ftp.x.org in contrib/faqs/.
-
- Liam R. E. Quin (lee@sq.sq.com) posts a FAQ on Open Look to
- comp.windows.open-look.
-
- Ken Sall (ksall@cen.com) posts a FAQ on Motif to comp.windows.x.motif; the
- Motif WEB page is at http://www.cen.com/mw3/ .
-
- Peter Ware (ware@cis.ohio-state.edu) posts a FAQ to comp.windows.x.intrinsics.
-
- Art Mulder (art@cs.ualberta.ca) posts to comp.windows.x a FAQ on maximizing
- the performance of X.
-
- Steve Kotsopoulos (steve@ecf.toronto.edu) posts to comp.windows.x a FAQ about
- using X on Intel-based Unix systems.
-
- Justin Kibell (jck@citri.edu.au) posts to comp.windows.x a FAQ on games for
- X.
-
- Luis Fernandes (elf@ee.ryerson.ca) posts to comp.windows.x.apps a FAQ on X
- applications; see also http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/xapps/faq.html .
-
- John Cwikla (cwikla@wri.com) posts to comp.windows.x.intrinsics a FAQ on
- available widgets. See also http://www.wri.com/~cwikla/widget/ and Xlopedia
- there.
-
- Ross McKay (rosko@zeta.org.au) posts to comp.windows.misc a FAQ which
- includes information on platform-independent GUI (PIGUI) development kits.
-
- Pete Phillips (pete@smtl.demon.co.uk) posts to comp.sources.wanted a FAQ on
- project-management programs.
-
- Wade Guthrie (wade@nb.rockwell.com) posts to comp.windows.misc a FAQ on
- platform-independent GUI toolkits (PIGUI).
-
- Craig Prall (cap@mitre.org) posts to alt.windows.cde a FAQ on the CDE
- environment (and the COSE initiative).
-
- The FAQ in alt.binaries.pictures contains information on viewing images with
- X and on massaging image formats.
-
- The FAQ in comp.mail.mh (gatewayed to MH-users@ics.uci.edu) includes a
- section on xmh.
-
- The FAQ in comp.lang.lisp contains information on several interface tools and
- toolkits.
-
- The FAQ for the Andrew User Interface System is available for ftp from
- ftp.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.232.154).
-
- The FAQ list for comp.lang.tcl details information on particular tcl/TK-based
- packages and related mailing lists.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 7) How do I ask a net-question so as to maximize helpful responses?
-
- When asking for help on the net or X mailing lists, be sure to include all
- information about your setup and what you are doing. The more specific you
- are, the more likely someone will spot an error in what you are doing.
- Without all the details, people who want to help you often have to guess --
- if they are able to respond at all.
-
- Always mention what version of X you are using and where you got it from. If
- your server came from a different source as the rest of your X system, give
- details of that, too. Give the machine type, operating system, and O/S
- version for both the client and server machine. It may also be appropriate
- to mention the window manager, compiler, and display hardware type you are
- using.
-
- Then tell exactly what you are doing, exactly what happens, and what you
- expected/wanted to happen. If it is a command that fails, include the exact
- transcript of your session in the message. If a program you wrote doesn't
- work the way you expect, include as little of the source necessary (just a
- small test case, please!) for readers to reproduce the problem.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 8)! What publications discussing X are available?
-
- The trade magazines (Unix World, Unix Review, etc.) are publishing more
- articles on X. Three X-specific publications include:
-
- The X Journal is a bi-monthly publication on a variety of X topics,
- publishing through 12/96. Subscription information: The X Journal,
- Subscriber Services, PO Box 5050, Brentwood, TN 37024-5050, 1-800-361-1279,
- subscriptions@sigs.com, http://www.sigs.com . Editorial information:
- Charles F. Bowman, Editor-in-Chief, The X Journal, 71 West 23rd Street, New
- York, NY 10012, cfb@panix.com.
-
- The X Advisor is a free on-line publication. You can view it at
- http://landru.unx.com/ .
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 9) What are these common abbreviations/acronyms?
-
- Xt: The X Toolkit Intrinsics is a library layered on Xlib which provides the
- functionality from which the widget sets are built. An "Xt-based" program is
- an application which uses one of those widget sets and which uses Intrinsics
- mechanisms to manipulate the widgets.
-
- Xmu: The Xmu library is a collection of Miscellaneous Utility functions
- useful in building various applications and widgets.
-
- Xaw: The Athena Widget Set is the Consortium-implemented sample widget set
- distributed with X11 source.
-
- Xm: The OSF/Motif widget set from the Open Software Foundation; binary kits
- are available from many hardware vendors.
-
- Xhp (Xw): The Hewlett-Packard Widget Set was originally based on R2++, but
- several sets of patches exist which bring it up to R3, as it is distributed
- on the X11R4 tapes. Supplemental patches are available to use it with R4 and
- later.
-
- CLX: The Common Lisp X Interface is a Common Lisp equivalent to Xlib.
-
- XDMCP: The X Display Manager Protocol provides a uniform mechanism for a
- display such as an X terminal to request login service from a remote host.
-
- XLFD: The X Logical Font Description Conventions describes a standard logical
- font description and conventions to be used by clients so that they can query
- and access those resources.
-
- RTFM: Common expert-speak meaning "please locate and consult the relevant
- documentation -- Read the Forgotten Manual".
-
- UTSL: A common expression meaning "take advantage of the fact that you aren't
- limited by a binary license -- Use The Source, Luke".
-
- API: Application-Programmer Interface. The function calls, etc., in a
- programming library.
-
- BDF: Bitmap Distribution Format; a human-readable format for uncompiled X
- fonts.
-
- GUI: graphical user interface.
-
- UIL: the User Interface Language, part of OSF/Motif which lets programmers
- specify a widget hierarchy in a simple text "outline" form
-
- WCL: the Widget Creation Language, a package which extends the understanding
- of the Xt resource format such that a widget hierarchy and actions on the
- widgets can be specified through the resources file
-
- UIMS: User Interface Management System
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 10) What is the ICCCM? (How do I write X-friendly applications?)
-
- The Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual is one of the
- official X Consortium standards documents that define the X environment. It
- describes the conventions that clients must observe to coexist peacefully
- with other clients sharing the same server. If you are writing X clients,
- you need to read and understand the ICCCM, in particular the sections
- discussing the selection mechanism and the interaction between your client
- and the window manager.
-
- Alternate definition: the ICCCM is generally the M in "RTFM" and is
- the most-important of the least-read X documents.
-
- Get the ICCCM from these sources:
-
- - Version 2.0 of the ICCCM is an X Consortium standard as of R6. See
- xc/doc/specs/ICCCM in the R6 distribution.
-
- Older versions include:
-
- - as part of the R5 and R4 distribution
- - in the later editions of the Scheifler/Gettys "X Window System" book
- - as an appendix in the new version of O'Reilly's Volume 0, "X
- Protocol Reference Manual." A version in old copies of ORA Volume 1 is
- obsolete. The version in the Digital Press book is much more readable,
- thanks to the efforts of Digital Press's editors to improve the English and
- the presentation. [from David Rosenthal, 10/90]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 11) What is the X Consortium, and how do I join?
-
- The X Consortium was formed in January of 1988 to further the development of
- the X Window System and has as its major goal the promotion of cooperation
- within the computer industry in the creation of standard software interfaces
- at all layers in the X Window System environment. MIT for many years provided
- the vendor-neutral architectural and administrative leadership required to
- make the organization work. The X Consortium is now an independent
- consortium.
-
- Most of the Consortium's activities take place via electronic mail, with
- meetings when required. As designs and specifications take shape, interest
- groups are formed from experts in the participating organizations. Typically
- a small multi-organization architecture team leads the design, with others
- acting as close observers and reviewers. Once a complete specification is
- produced, it may be submitted for formal technical review by the Consortium
- as a proposed standard. The standards process typically includes public
- review (outside the Consortium) and a demonstration of proof of concept.
-
- Your involvement in the public review process or as a member of the
- Consortium is welcomed. Membership in the Consortium open to any
- organization; there are several membership categories. Write to Bob
- Scheifler, President, X Consortium, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
- 02142-1301, or send a message to membership@x.org, or look in
- /pub/DOCS/XConsortium on ftp.x.org, or use the URL
- http://www.x.org/ftp/pub/DOCS/XConsortium .
-
- [2/90; 9/93; 12/93; 5/94]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 12) Just what are OPEN LOOK and Motif?
-
- OPEN LOOK and Motif are two graphical user interfaces (GUIs). OPEN LOOK was
- developed by Sun with help from AT&T and many industry reviewers; Motif was
- developed by the Open Software Foundation (OSF) with input from many OSF
- members.
-
- OPEN LOOK is primarily a user-interface specification and style-guide; there
- are several toolkits which can be used to produce OPEN LOOK applications.
- Motif includes an API specification; the only sanctioned Motif toolkit is the
- one from OSF. However, there are other toolkits which can be used to produce
- programs which look and behave like OSF/Motif; one of these, Pure's (formerly
- ParcPlace's; formerly Solbourne's) OI, is a "virtual toolkit" which provides
- objects in the style of OPEN LOOK and Motif, at the user's choice.
-
- OPEN LOOK GUI is also the name of a product from AT&T, comprising their OPEN
- LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit and a variety of applications.
-
- [Thanks to Ian Darwin, ian@sq.com, 5/91]
-
- With the recent COSE announcement it appears that Sun will be phasing out
- support for OPEN LOOK in favor of Motif.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 13)! What is "low-bandwidth X" (X.fast/LBX)? XRemote? PPP? SLIP? CSLIP?
-
- X.fast is the new name of LBX.
-
- The one-line summary of LBX is:
- LBX = "XRemote" + reply/event/error compaction + caching
-
- There are several options for using X over serial lines:
-
- SLIP - Serial Line IP; this is both a mechanism and a protocol for sending IP
- packets over point-to-point serial links. It has been around for several
- years, and implementations are available for many of the major TCP/IP
- implementations. Most X Terminal vendors supply this as a checkoff item,
- although nobody really ever uses it since it is horribly slow. The TCP/IP
- headers add 40 bytes per packet and the TCP/IP encoding of the X protocol is
- rather verbose (rightfully so; it is optimized for packing and unpacking over
- high-speed links).
-
- CSLIP - Compressed header SLIP; this is a variant of SLIP that compresses the
- 40 bytes of TCP/IP headers down to about 5 or 6 bytes. It still doesn't do
- anything about reencoding the X protocol. Modems that do compression can
- help, but they increase packet latency (it takes time to dribble the
- uncompressed data through typical serial interfaces, plus the compression
- assembly time).
-
- PPP - Point-to-Point Protocol; this is an emerging standard for point-to-point
- links over serial lines that has a more complete set of option negotiation
- than SLIP. A growing number of people see the combination of PPP for the
- serial line management and CSLIP for the header compression as becoming common
- for running normal TCP/IP protocols over serial lines. Running raw X over the
- wire still needs compression somewhere to make it usable.
-
- XRemote - this is the name of both a protocol and set of products originally
- developed by NCD for squeezing the X protocol over serial lines. In addition
- to using a low level transport mechanism similar to PPP/CSLIP, XRemote removes
- redundancies in the X protocol by sending deltas against previous packets and
- using LZW to compress the entire data stream. This work is done by either a
- pseudo-X server or "proxy" running on the host or in a terminal server. There
- are several advantages to doing compression outside the modem:
- (1) You don't *have* to have compressing modems in there if you wouldn't
- otherwise be using them (e.g. if you were going to be directly
- connected), and
- (2) It reduces the I/O overhead by cutting down on the number of bytes
- that have to cross the serial interface, and
- (3) In addition to the effects of #2, it reduces the latency in delivering
- packets by not requiring the modem to buffer up the data waiting for
- blocks to compress.
-
- LBX - Low Bandwidth X; this is an X Consortium project that is working on a
- standard for this area. It is being chaired by NCD and Xerox and is using
- NCD's XRemote protocol as a stepping stone in developing the new protocol.
- LBX will go beyond XRemote by adding proxy caching of commonly-used
- information (e.g. connection setup data, large window properties, font
- metrics, keymaps, etc.) and a more efficient encoding of the X protocol. The
- hope is to have a Standard ready for public review in the first half of next
- year and a sample implementation available in R6.
-
- Additional technical information about how XRemote works and a few notes on
- how LBX might be different are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.x.org in
- R5contrib/ in the following files:
- XRemote-slides.ps slides describing XRemote
- XRemote-LBX-diffs.ps more slides describing some of LBX
-
- [information provided by Jim Fulton, jim@ncd.com; 7/92]
-
- There is also a set of slides on ftp.x.org from Jim Fulton's talk at the 7th
- X Technical Conference.
-
- LBX is designated as a work in progress in R6. See workInProgress/README and
- workInProgress/lbx/README in the R6 distribution for more information.
-
- LBX was withdrawn from the X11R6.1 release until it can be finished. It is
- being worked on within the X Consortium and is intended to be released as a
- Consortium standard, with a Consortium implementation, as part of Broadway.
- [3/96]
-
- Note: dxpc is an X11 compressor that improves the performance of X
- applications run over low-bandwidth network connections (e.g. 28.8Kb/s). It
- runs on most UNIXes. dxpc achieves compression performance between
- 3:1 and 6:1 compression for a wide variety of applications. Sources are on
- ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/xutils/dxpc-3.3.0.tar.gz and
- ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/dxpc-3.3.0.tar.gz . Information: Brian Pane
- (bpane@bnc.bellcore.com) [9/96]
-
- Note: X/lbX/server is the implementation of the server side of the X11R6 LBX
- "protocol", totally independent from the X Window server. It is an LBX proxy
- for the client side containing some performance enhancements and bug fixes.
- You may use any X Consortium LBX proxy, too. The software is in beta state.
- See http://www.x-software.com/Software/Xlbx/ for more information. [8/96]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 14)+ TOPIC: X CONSORTIUM FUTURES
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 15)+ What's the official word from the X Consortium?
-
- Here is the text of the announcement posted by the Consortium to
- comp.windows.x on 1 July 1996:
-
- X Consortium to Transfer X Window System(tm) to The Open Group
-
- Cambridge, Massachusetts - July 1, 1996 - X Consortium, Inc. today
- announced that it would transfer responsibility for the X Window System
- to The Open Group at the beginning of next year. "X is now mainstream
- technology, and since the first commercial release in 1986 it has
- matured to the point where a dedicated consortium is no longer essential
- to its on-going support," explains Robert W. Scheifler, president of the
- X Consortium. "Our industry will benefit greatly by continuing and
- accelerating the convergence of X, Motif and the Common Desktop
- Environment (CDE) into a unified technology stack. This is already well
- underway with the current CDE-Motif PST project, operating under the
- auspices of The Open Group, an organization that is well positioned to
- take this technology into the future." The Open Group will continue
- their existing work of publishing, testing and branding products which
- conform to international standards, including X.
-
- "As a long standing partner with the X Consortium in the Open Systems
- industry, The Open Group supports this decision. On a personal note, I
- want to add that the computer industry owes an enormous debt of
- gratitude to Bob Scheifler and the X Consortium for the service they
- have provided for the last eight years," commented Jim Bell, CEO of The
- Open Group. "Their very positive impact on our industry will continue to
- be felt for years to come."
-
- As part of this change, X Consortium plans to wind down all engineering
- operations at the end of this year. "I have made a commitment to our
- members, and to the sponsors of the CDE-Motif project, to oversee the
- entire transition process from now until our current engineering
- projects are finished and the hand-off is complete," said Scheifler. The
- X Consortium will work with its members and The Open Group to determine
- whether the organization should continue on in some reduced fashion.
-
- Broadway, the code name for the next release of the X Window System,
- will be completed as planned by the end of the year, and will be made
- freely available to the public under the same terms as previous X
- Consortium releases. Broadway enables interactive UNIX and Windows
- applications to be integrated, unmodified, into HTML documents and
- published on World Wide Web servers, using plug-in technology, and
- includes network protocols for graphics and audio to provide remote
- access to those applications from inside Web browsers. The Broadway
- release is expected to be available from current sources, including
- worldwide ftp sites and CDROM distributors.
-
- The X Consortium will fulfill its obligations as prime contractor in The
- Open Group's Pre-Structured Technology (PST) project developing the next
- release of CDE and Motif. "The plan has always been to complete both the
- CDE-Motif project and Broadway by the end of this year," says Jim
- Fournier, Director of Engineering. "We are confident in our ability to
- deliver as planned."
-
- About the X Consortium
-
- Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, X Consortium, Inc. is a
- not-for-profit industry consortium developing user interface standards
- and graphics technology with over sixty members worldwide. Founded in
- 1993 as successor to the MIT X Consortium, the X Consortium enhances and
- maintains the X Window System. In 1995, the X Consortium was named prime
- contractor for development of the next release of CDE and Motif.
-
-
- X Window System is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc.
- Motif is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc.
- The Open Group is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. and
- X/Open Company Ltd.
- All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 16)+ What happens to X? to Broadway? still free?
-
- Broadway, which will be named an X11 release when done, will be available
- under the same terms X has always been available under. What happens after
- that, and the terms under which any potential future developments will be
- made available, is still under discussion.
-
- The fact that Motif, CDE, and X are now hosted by the same organization doesn't
- imply that Motif becomes free software, nor that X becomes licensed software.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Subject: 17)+ Why is this happening?
-
- What's happened is a recognition that the original mission of the X
- Consortium is largely complete, and that a full-fledged industry Consortium
- isn't really needed or even necessarily appropriate for ongoing maintenance
- of X. Under those circumstances, it makes sense to bundle X in with the
- other components of what has become the standard Unix desktop -- Motif and
- CDE -- and turn the whole package over to OSF and X/Open (aka The Open Group)
- for future maintenance.
-
- [thanks to Matt Landau (matt@x.org)]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- David B. Lewis faq%craft@uunet.uu.net
-
- "Just the FAQs, ma'am." -- Joe Friday
-