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[previous article] [next article]David A. Curry
There are currently several workstation architectures and operating systems in use on the Engineering Computer Network. Each of these architecture and operating system combinations has its own windowing system. Although many of the systems are similar, there are just enough differences to make things confusing. To make matters worse, the workstation vendors have recently made several announcements about new directions, new alliances, and new partnerships. As usually happens in the computer industry, these announcements have mostly just made things more confusing.
In this article, I'll attempt to shed some light on just what's going on (or at least what I think is going on).
The last release of Sun's operating system to provide the SunView commands is SunOS 4.1.x, which is what most of the ECN Sun workstations are currently running. The newest release of the operating system, Solaris 2.x, which is running on the new SPARCstation LX and some SPARCstation 10 systems, does not provide the SunView commands.
The OpenWindows windowing system (see below) is Sun's official replacement for SunView. We are currently running OpenWindows 2.0 on the Sun-3 systems, and OpenWindows 3.0 and 3.1 on the Sun-4 (SPARC) systems. All of these versions provide a SunView compatibility mode that lets you run SunView programs under OpenWindows. However, OpenWindows 3.3, which will ship with Solaris 2.3 in October or November, will not provide SunView compatibility mode any longer.
If you are currently using SunView, we strongly recommend that you begin to think about learning a new window system. OpenWindows is the easiest one to learn, and will look the most familiar to you, since it bears a strong resemblance in some ways to SunView.
The next release of X11 from MIT, Release 6 (X11R6), is scheduled to be released on April 15, 1994. Assuming this schedule is met (X11 releases are notoriously late), we will probably install it for use right after the spring semester ends. After it has been tested for a while and people have had a chance to switch to it, we will remove the old (X11R5) release, probably around the end of Summer 1994.
If you would like to use X11, contact your site specialist for information, or keep your eye on the ECN Short Course schedule for XSTART training classes. There are also a number of books available that will teach you to use X11; I have found the X Window System User Guide from O'Reilly and Associates, Volume 3 of their X11 series, helpful. This book is available at the campus bookstores.
If you would like to use Motif, you might checkout the Motif edition of the X Window System User Guide from O'Reilly and Associates, Volume 3 of their X11 series.
The OpenWindows server is a merger of the X Window System (X11R4) and the Network-extensible Window System (NeWS). NeWS is a PostScript-based window system that is similar to, but not the same as, Adobe's Display PostScript. The current and last release of OpenWindows on the Sun-3 systems is Version 2.0. Because the Sun-3 architecture has been end-of-lifed by Sun, OpenWindows on the Sun-3 will never be updated again. The current release of OpenWindows on the Sun-4 (SPARC) systems is 3.0 on the systems running SunOS 4.1.x, and 3.1 on the systems running Solaris 2.1. Version 3.0 is the last release of OpenWindows for SunOS 4.1.x; future updates will run only under Solaris 2.x.
With the release of Solaris 2.3 in October, OpenWindows will no longer be based on X11R4 and NeWS. Instead, it will be based on the MIT X11R5 server and Adobe's Display PostScript. This will not be of much significance to the average user (your windows will look pretty much the same), but may be of significance to programmers. First, the OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit (OLIT) will now be X11R5-based. Second, support for the NeWS Toolkit (TNT) and NeWS imaging will be discontinued. If you use either of these, you will have to modify your programs to use Display PostScript.
This change is important, because it will make Sun's OpenWindows more compatible with other vendors' systems. X11R5 and Display PostScript are supported by all the other major UNIX workstation vendors (DEC, HP, IBM, and Silicon Graphics). This means that an application you write for the Sun should compile and work on any of these other systems as well. The change will also help Sun move toward the Common Open Software Environment (COSE), described later in this article.
If you would like to learn to use OpenWindows, consider attending
an ECN short course. For information about the next class, type
"help ecnnews" and select "ShortCourses" .
VUE is not a window system in itself, but rather is software layered on top of the X Window System and Motif. Its purpose is to shield you from the complexities of X11 and Motif, by allowing you to configure things with menus and mouse buttons instead of by editing configuration files. VUE runs only on HP workstations.
If you would like to learn how to use VUE, contact your site specialist for information.
COSE is a specification for a common desktop environment that will give end users a consistent look and feel. Once this software is available, you will be able to sit down in front of a Sun, HP, IBM or Silicon Graphics workstation (among others) and your environment will look exactly the same -- you won't have to learn four different window system variants. COSE also specifies an Application Programming Interface (API), meaning that you can write programs on any one of these systems and expect them to work on all the systems.
The preliminary specification for COSE was published at the end of June 1993. The first implementations of the COSE desktop environment will be available in mid-1994, and will probably start appearing in operating system products by the end of 1994. If you would like a copy of the COSE preliminary desktop specification, you can obtain it via anonymous FTP from the host xopen.co.uk in the file pub/cdespec1/cde1_ps.Z .
The common desktop environment from COSE will incorporate aspects of HP's Visual User Environment (VUE), IBM's Common User Access model and Workplace Shell, OSF's Motif toolkit and Window Manager (mwm), Sun's OPEN LOOK and DeskSet productivity tools, and USL's UNIX SVR4.2 desktop manager components and scalable systems technologies. Specific technologies that will be used include the X Window System, Version 11, the Motif toolkit and interface, and Sun's ToolTalk interapplication communication product with an incorporated HP BMS Encapsulator.
So what does all this mean? It means window systems are going to change again. How seriously this will affect you is hard to say at this stage. Most likely, the environment you see under COSE will be very similar to the environments you use today. However, the nice thing will be that your environment will look and work exactly the same regardless of whether you are using a Sun workstation, an HP workstation, an IBM workstation, or a Silicon Graphics workstation.
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