X sucks (was: Re: Ware Ware Wizardjin)

[Root Boy Jim]

In fpb at ittc.wec.com (Frank P. Bresz) writes:
>
>	Well I for one must disagree with the X sucks.  I personally like
>X.  I am much happier than I was with sunview.  I use GNU-Emacs in X mode
>and I run Xterm all of the time.  I am primarily a text man so I can't
>speek to well for the graphics.

You just haven't learned enuf about X to hate it yet.

If all you do is use xterms and other text oriented stuff, then
X is somewhat better than SunView simply because it is more
flexible. And it runs over the network, which is an advantage
as long as the destination is close.

For a slew of good reasons why X is bad, read the introduction
to NeWS documents from Sun. To sum the up briefly: X uses the
wrong imaging model and device control is in the wrong place.

X does have some nifty features. Treating widgets as objects
probably works better in an object oriented language. 

Device independence, while done wrong, is more or less
accomplished in a portable way. And a networking windowing
system is definitely a step in the right direction.

>	I think the fact about the only set of free software is true.  This
>is the reason I run it.  I can't see shelling out good $$$ for something
>like MOTIF when I get much faster response from the stuff from MIT.
>
>	I won't even discuss OpenWindows from Sun sans to say it is slow
>and uncustomizable aside from that I don't know why I don't like it.

Both MOTIF and OpenWindows are basicly the same thing: icing on
the cake, which is X. I really don't know the difference either,
however, any program can just use X or any other toolkit directly.
-- 
		[rbj at uunet 1] stty sane
		unknown mode: sane