Need information on SunView 2.0 and compatibility

[Richard Probst]

> Unfortunately, I think that Sun View applications will not run under 
> the X11/NeWS server without being recompiled as View 2 applications.

Let me correct this misimpression before it starts to spread.  The
X11/NeWS server provides full and complete binary compatibility for
SunView applications.  You do not need to recompile.  Your SunView
applications will run unchanged on an X11/NeWS screen.

You may choose to convert a SunView application into a View2 application,
which will require some editing as well as recompilation.  The benefits of
converting to View2 are:

     -- A View2 application can be run on any machine on the network,
	displaying its windows on the workstation you are sitting at;
	this allows you to distribute the workload, and to develop
	networked applications without writing any networking calls.

     -- View2 is an X11 toolkit, so View2 applications will run on
	any X11 server.  On a heterogenous network, with both Suns
	and other workstations, you could run a View2 application on
	a Sun and display its windows on your machine, even if your
	machine was not a Sun (as long as you were running X11).

     -- In the first release, View2 implements a preliminary version
	of OPEN LOOK (basically, it implements the OPEN LOOK spec
	as it went out for industry comment in July; the spec has
	changed since then, based on some of the comments received).
	In the next release, View2 will be certifiably OPEN LOOK.

If these benefits are attractive, you should convert your SunView
applications to View2.  But if you do not need distributed window
operation, or heterogenous window operation, or OPEN LOOK, then you may
decide not to convert.  Either way, X11/NeWS will support you.

	--Richard Probst	(rprobst at sun.com)