Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ncar!oddjob!gargoyle!att!alberta!calgary!radford
From: radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: Bugs in NeWs documentation ("server" vs. "client")
Summary: Yes, NeWS is not a "server"
Message-ID: <1811@vaxb.calgary.UUCP>
Date: 14 Aug 88 21:41:02 GMT
References: <1327@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>
Organization: U. of Calgary, Calgary, Ab.
Lines: 23

In article <1327@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>, dick@ccb.ucsf.edu (Dick Karpinski) writes:

> The NeWS and the Open Look documentation is said to refer to
> the local graphics device as a window server and the distant
> applications engine as a window client...  
>
>     [ WRONG! ] 
>
> ...The local thing is client.  The distant thing is server.

This hadn't occurred to me, but you're absolutely right! Furthermore,
even the _implementation_ of applications under NeWS might not follow
the local "server", remote "client" model. For example, a Postscript
process in the workstation might be in control of the application,
but make requests to a data-base server on a remote machine.

Server/client is a relationship between _processes_. At the relevant
level of abstraction, NeWS is not a process. It is virtual machine
supporting Postscript processes, some of which might be servers, some
clients.

While we're at it, the term "host" also seems to be terminally confusing.

    Radford Neal