Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP From: jg@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Newsgroups: mod.computers.workstations Subject: Announcement of X Window System Release 4 Message-ID: <8612022018.AA22269@ORPHEUS> Date: Tue, 2-Dec-86 15:18:01 EST Article-I.D.: ORPHEUS.8612022018.AA22269 Posted: Tue Dec 2 15:18:01 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Dec-86 21:46:55 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 163 Approved: works@red.rutgers.edu Release 4 of the X window system is now available, based on V10 of the X protocol. This is the LAST release of X based on V10 of the protocol; work is progressing steadily on the Version 11 implementation and you may expect to hear from us in a few months about this. This release will run on the Digital VS-1, VS-2, VS-2/RC under Ultrix 1.2, the DEC VS100 under 4.3BSD, most Sun Microsystems workstations under 3.0, Apollo Computer workstations under 9.2, Integrated Solutions workstations under 3.07, and the IBM RT/PC under ACIS 4.2A release 2 (Not under AIX). X is also being commercially supported and sold by a number of computer manufacturers; you should contact them for availability. MIT does not "support" this distribution; however bugs and fixes and new code are gratefully accepted. If you do not urgently need the tape at this time, we recommend waiting until December 15, 1986, when additional material will be added to the tape. See the note below on toolkits. Updated tapes will be sent to people shipped tapes before December 15. There will be an annoucement on the 15th on this additional material. To order a distribution, send a CHECK for U.S. $100 to: MIT Microcomputer Center MIT 11-209 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139 (617) 253-6325 Purchase orders will NOT be accepted. The distribution will come on a single 9 track 1600BPI tape written in Unix tar(1) format, along with a single copy of printed documentation. Other distribution media or formats are NOT available. Distributions are also available from "zap.mit.edu" (18.72.0.126) on the Internet, via anonymous FTP. MEMORANDUM To: Users of the X version 10 release 4 tape Subject: user interface toolkit availability Since the last release of the X Window System, there have been several groups working on programmer's toolkits, layered above Xlib. There is a recognized need for more functions that provide common user interface building blocks for applications, of which XMenu was a start. M.I.T has received copies of several such `user interface toolkits' in the past month. There is considerable similarity in these projects; i.e. they all offer the most common `widgets'; titlebars, scrollbars, command buttons, etc. Each has some particular feature that may make it more suitable for a particular application than the others. We would prefer to have a single unified toolkit that combines all the best features of these several examples (and some ideas that we haven't yet seen implemented), and we are starting a process with the various implementors to work toward that goal. In the meantime, we do intend to distribute the existing toolkits as `user-contributed software' so that developers don't have to re-invent as many wheels. Of course, those of you building commercial products may wish to take appropriate measures to insure future supportability of your products. (We will only distribute toolkits for which we have complete source code and we will distribute that source with the toolkit). In attempting to balance the various release schedules, we have decided to pre-ship this Version 10 Release 4 tape now without the toolkits so that those of you who need the core window system asap can get it in time for the next academic semester. We will replace this distribution with an updated distribution on December 15 that will add the toolkits described above. We also hope to be able to give you some insights into the future of X User Interface Toolkits with the December 15th distribution. We know that there are many of you out there faced with the decision whether or not to implement your own toolkit before you can write that favorite application. The toolkits that will be on the distribution tape will save many of you a great deal of effort in implementing user interfaces, but we do want to caution you to expect these toolkits to change as we progress to our goal of convergence. Changes from release 3 to release 4 of X There is device dependent code for the Apollo, Integrated Solutions, and IBM RT/PC displays. The Sun implementation has been improved, but is not yet complete. The IBM RT/PC implementation has a reasonably complete implementation which could be used to fill out the Sun graphics implementation, but we had no manpower to do so. Release 4 of the system will be the LAST based on Version 10 of the X protocol. New: libapollo device dependent code for Apollo workstations Our thanks to the Mark Swanson at the University of Utah and Doug Orr for this work. Due to problems in Apollo's preprocessor, installation may be painful. libibm device dependent code for IBM RT/PC workstation. Our thanks to Daniel Stone, Mike Braca, Dave Bundy at Brown University IRIS for this work. NOTE: This runs under IBM ACIS 4.2 Release 2 ONLY, not under AIX. libis device dependent code for Integrated Solutions display. xtrek addictive game; requires shared memory, so not all machines can run it, though all can participate. Blame Chris Guthrie (chris@ic.berkeley.edu). showimg nice imageing program for color displays. primarily here to give examples. xcolors program to help figure out what colors to use xperfmon performance monitor for Unix. Improved: X Bug fixes. Not many, as server is very stable. Stipple fill, but not really blessed, as not available everywhere. Xlib A few bug fixes, a few new routines. xterm major new version courtesy of Ed Moy at Berkeley. Can you say "Kitchen Sink"? Scrollbars, titlebars, 4015 emulation, etc. doc/Xlib bug fixes. doc/Paper TOG paper on X. Explains much that has been obscure. man/* updated for new arguments. XMenu bug fixes in callback stuff. bitmap line, circle drawing added. xwd xwud improved to deal with color better. No longer stores images off screen, so works all the time on implementations with little offscreen memory. Enjoy! 2-Dec-1986 Jim Gettys Ralph R. Swick MIT Project Athena