[TUHS] X, Suntools, and the like

[Josh Good]

On 2017 Mar 17, 15:19, Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> On 16 Mar 2017, at 23:29, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at orthanc.ca> wrote:
> > 
> > The Mac proclaimed the bitmap screen interface to the world, but X11 (and Sunview) pretty much invented the GUI desktop metaphor.
> 
> As someone who used Xerox machines: no, they didn't.

I concur that the Xerox GUI was not a "desktop metaphor". The "GUI
desktop metaphor" embodies much more than a graphical canvas where to
move a pointer to click around. It needs the concept of "unified session"
and of "private session" to happen too.

On X11, you have a root window where different remote apps from
different remote systems and from different logged users can draw
things. That's not a "desktop metaphor", that's just a "blackboard
metaphor".

A "desktop metaphor" needs the "private unified session" concept to
happen too.

X was designed at MIT way before the "desktop metaphor", which probably
was invented (as such) in the McIntosh.

-- 
Josh Good