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From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: amusing use of a Sun at NeXT, Inc.
Message-ID: <28683@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 30 Nov 88 03:05:31 GMT
References: <843@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> <2872@ima.ima.isc.com> <709STORKEL@RICE>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science
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In article <709STORKEL@RICE> STORKEL@RICE.BITNET (Scott Storkel) writes:
>Now if NeXT would release a version of NextStep for Suns...

If they were to release the source to at least the protocol and
toolkit libraries, and the sources to some of their window clients,
then we'd at least be able to knit the NeXT box into an environment of
existing UNIX boxes where people are used to running a client on one
box talking to a server on another.

In a similar vein, yesterday I received literature from Stepstone Inc.
They sell an Objective-C compiler, a "Foundation" class library, an
Objective-C interpreter, and a Graphical User Interface class library.
Various parts of their product line run on Apollos, HP9000-200/300,
Sun-2, Sun-3, VAX/Ultrix, VAX/VMS, and PC-AT.  The UI toolkit pieces
run under some of the vendors' window systems (e.g. DM on Apollos,
native or X10R4 on HPs, SunView on Suns, and X10R4 on Ultrix VAXen).
The compiler seems to run on most everything.  Their University site
license fees seem most reasonable, and include source to everything.
(If only other companies would be so open - sigh...)

They say the develoment environment is getting ported to more
platforms daily - all they need is a good C compiler.  Perhaps an X11
interface is coming soon.  I'd love to play with the Interface Builder
as an X11 application, and see the "bouncing molecules in a cylinder"
demo running on some of the compute engines around here, displaying on
my Sun running X11

I'm just beginning to understand the genealogy of this stuff, I think.
It seems that NeXT licensed Stepstone's development environment, put
it on the Display PostScript backend much as it was already on the X10
and SunView backends, cleaned up the existing classes, and added a few
more.  Then they sold it to IBM to stretch Perot's dollars a bit
further to make it to the ship date :-)

This still doesn't mean that you could use StepStone's stuff to
develop code to run on a Cray that will whisper PostScript in your
NeXT window server's ear.  You'll still need some classes from NeXT to
get the PostScript flying on the wire.  But it's a start.

(Of course, I have no connection with either NeXT or Stepstone, other
than as a very curious inquirer and seeker-after-nifty-stuff.)