Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!SEAS.UCLA.EDU!bilbo.gregh
From: bilbo.gregh@SEAS.UCLA.EDU (Gregory Holmberg)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Summary of AT&T Open Look Product Overview
Message-ID: <8805112125.AA24690@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 11 May 88 20:53:41 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 134

> You quoted the OPEN LOOK GUI.  Are they available now?
> If so, how can they be obtained?  If not, when will I 
> be able to obtain them, and again how?

Here's a reprint of the InfoWorld article, April 18, vol 10, issue 16:

_________________________________________________________________________

AT&T, Sun Show New Unix Interface

Ashton-Tate, Lotus Promise Their Support

By Carole Patten

NEW YORK --  AT&T and Sun Microsystems last week unveiled Open Look, a
graphical interface they hope will transform a bear -- the notoriously
unfriendly command-line Unix interface -- into a pussycat.

"This is a critical step in expanding the Unix marketplace," said Vittorio
Cassoni, president of AT&T's Data Systems Group.  "With a standard interface,
Unix can compete for a larger market."

A total or 36 hardware and/or software vendors (including Ashton-Tate,
Autodesk, Borland, Lotus, Symantec, Unisys, Word Perfect, and Xerox) promised
support for Open Look at the announcement.  "Unix is a strategic platform,"
said Ed Esber Jr., chairman and CEO of Ashton-Tate Corp.  "Unix had an
interface only a programmer could love."  Esber added that Ashton-Tate would
have a Dbase version of Open Look ready this year.

A Unix version of Lotus 1-2-3 will be developed, according to Jim P. Manzi,
president and CEO of Lotus, but he declined to give any dates for its
availability.  Open Look will also be incorporated into Xerox's document
processing products, said Wayland Hicks, president of the Business Products
and Systems Group.

Xerox and Sun also announced that Sun had licensed Xerox's graphical user
interface.  (See related story.)

Open Look, which the companies demonstrated, is an on-screen environment
similar to Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Finder.  It provides a "desktop"
on which users view icons representing files, documents and applications.
Icons are selected through a hand-held mouse.  In addition, a pushpin symbol
allows users of the system to "tack up" menus.

Scrolling is done via a tiny "elevator," and files are printed and stored
with buttons that look like those on household appliances.

Open Look is based on merged versions of X-Window, Version X11, a public-
domain program from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and on News,
a Sun-developed interface, Sun said.  It will be the user interface for Unix
System V.4, due out next year.

In addition, Open Look specifications can be implemented by software
developers.  AT&T will provide two toolkits, XT Toolkit and NDE Toolkit,
which contain components that are easier to use than the raw protocols
in both X-Window and News.  The toolkits include interface pieces such as
menus, scroll bars, toggles, and buttons, making it easier to put together
an application quickly, according to Michelle Arden, Sun's manager for Window
system products.

XT Toolkit, to be available in the third quarter, is a revision of an existing
toolkit from MIT, and it targets developers who are already working with
X-Window.  NDE (News Development Environment) is a new toolkit for Unix
System V.4, which is being jointly developed by AT&T and Sun.  The toolkit
should be available in the fourth quarter.  AT&T said source code for
Open Look would be available in early 1989.

"NDE is an object-oriented programming environment that is based on Smalltalk
from Xerox Corp.," according to Arden.  "NDE will ship on top of the X11/News
platform but will use specific News functions like Postscript on the screen."
News uses the Postscript language and has much of the functionality of
Display Postscript but is not from Adobe.

Arden said Sun would begin shipping Open Look on its SPARC, 386i, and
Motorola workstations later this year.  However, she noted that the Open Look
specifications have not yet been completed.  "It's in skeletel form now --
it will be in final form this summer."

Arden added, however, that it was "complete enough for AT&T to announce and
endorse it."  Announcing early gives people a chance to provide input on
the specifications, according to Arden.  "We are getting feedback already."

AT&T has already scheduled eight, three-day developers conferences on Open Look
to begin in September.  The conferences will cost $750 and be cosponsered by
Sun.  AT&T has not yet priced the Open Look developers kit.

________________________________________________________________________

(Related article)

Sun Licenses Interface Technology from Xerox

By Rachel Parker

As part of the announcement of the new Open Look interface for Unix, Sun
last week announced it has licensed graphic interface technology from Xerox.

The royalty-free license enables Sun to incorporate the patented and copy-
righted graphic interface technology that Xerox has developed -- including
the Star interface -- in Open Look.  Under the cross-license, the two
companies will bring additional Xerox features to Open Look.

Although no other company has licensed the entire Viewpoint interface from
Xerox, the company said it will negotiate with other interested vendors.
"We are open to holding discussions with anyone else who would want to
license the graphical interface," said spokesman Terry Dillon.  Terms of
future licenses would depend on the situation, he added.

Sun's license reflects the company's appreciation for Xerox's graphic
interface development.  "We believe the technology is good," said Sun
spokeswoman Nancy Groves.

"Sun actually looked at and researched the fundamental ideas involved in
graphic interfaces and where they are expressed," said Richard Shaffer,
editor of the "Technologic Letter."  "Bill Joy wanted to give credit where
credit is due for the fundamental ideas."

Third-party software developers writing programs for Unix will be able to
license the Open Look interface directly from AT&T, Groves said.  However,
it is not yet clear whether Open Look will be packaged with Unix or be
available seperately, she added.

Sun and Xerox further cemented their alliance last week when Xerox committed
to buy or manufacture more than $200 million of SPARC-based systems over the
next five years. Xerox said it will build its next-generation document
processing systems around the SPARC chip, a RISC chip that Sun developed and
is licensing to chip and systems manufacturers.

__________________________________________________

Obviously Carole Patten doesn't know the first thing about "X-Window" or
"News", but I think you can get the information you want from this article.

Greg Holmberg
Locus Computing Corp.