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.