UNIX Futures

[P. D. Guthrie]

In article <1090 at psivax.UUCP> friesen at psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>	Actually, a properly implemented windowing system should
>SIGSTP all processes not in active windows.
Why would you want to do this?  The beauty of a windowing system is the
ability to monitor multiple running processes.  Actually as we speak I
am watching two interactive processes that I am testing.  I couldn't do
this properly without windows.  I can generally do more than one thing
at once and for my best productivity,  I would like this to reflect on
my computer usage.
> And the window management
>system is best placed in the kernel where it does require a special
>process.
Putting it in the kernel is a bad idea.  The beauty of unix is that so
much of the system software is *outside* of the kernel where it can be
run and customized with much greater ease.  No, the window system
belongs to a great degree within a multiplexing process and inside the
windowing device itself.  
>	My main objection to windowing is your last point - it requires
>to much in the way of special hardware to run correctly. In fact the
>1200 Baud over-the-modem problem is  *very* serious.
>-- 
OK. I admit a good point, however we must consider the relative price of
hardware.  A DMD such as the one I am using now is rather expensive for
the average user,  but many other terminals also have at least simple
windowing capabilities.  My teletype 4425 has a 'windows' mode where it
can have up to four windows and the scrolling is kept inside the
window.  I am currently (sporatically) working on a type of 'layers' for
this.  Most terminals made within the next few years will have this sort
of capability,  so it will become easier than ever to have 'windowing' 
in all environments,  not just Unix.  Yes,  we should also have line
modes for those who have 'older' terminals until these are all phased
out, which should take a couple of decades.  This really goes to show
that large amounts of special hardware are not required and that
terminal manufacturers are aware of this.  I think it will become very
important to them to produce the best windowing capabilities in their
terminals for the lowest cost.  AS for the 1200 (or god forbid 300) baud
problem,  you still have line (or I should say single screen) mode.  No
one is forcing you to use windows (and I often don't)  but for most
applications I find them more useful.
>
>				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)
>
>UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen
>ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen at rand-unix.arpa


-- 

Paul Guthrie				`When the going gets weird,
ihnp4!ihdev!pdg				 The weird turn pro'
					  - H. Thompson