Window Systems and Job Control

[Roy Smith]

In article <2369 at brl-smoke.ARPA> swa at mit-borax.arpa (Steven Augart) writes:
> [...] for those of us who do NOT have a window system [...] job control
> offers a lot of functionality that systems without it don't provide.  We
> will need job control until the last hardcopy terminal dies, until the
> last 24 X 80 screen is is a museum.

	There is no reason why you need a bit-map display to have windows.
We run the Lennon/Truscott WM window manager which provides a sort of poor
man's window system on ASCII terminals (even on our old ADM-5's).  It's not
as fancy as windows on a Sun, but it works.  There really isn't much excuse
for not having windows, and WM puts to bed the old wives' tale that you
need a $5k piece of hardware on your desk to get them (you do however need
4.2bsd, at least for the version of WM we have).  Come to think of it,
emacs gives you ASCII windows too (with Apollo-style transcript pads).

	Of course, having 4.2, we also have job control.  Guess what?  They
complement each other very nicely.  Right now, I've got an "su" running in
the background with wm underneath it.  In one window I'm running a big job
and in another window I'm monitoring the progress it's making.  In reality
however, I've got the whole schmear hidden in the background while I read
news for a while.

	I suppose I could have just opened up another full-screen window
and su'ed back to myself to run news, but I didn't feel like doing it that
way.  I wouldn't have the same history list I left behind with my original
login shell (not to mention eating up another pty).  The capability exists
to have both job control and windows on an ASCII terminal, so why not have
them both?  Each solves a different problem.
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016