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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
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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