Hello Peter:

I got a copy  of NeWS 1.0 when we bought a Sun 3/60 for the lab.
Unfortunately, I was busy with my research and did not have a great deal of
time to understand all the details.  NeWS was basically trying to solve the
bandwidth issue - have a smart programmable client with a defined protocol
down the pipe.  To this end they extended Postscript (which is a layout
language) to handle input as well.  The server side was defined in C with
routines for packaging objects/communication through the pipe.  Byte ordering
etc. was automatic.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, this did not catch on.  NeWS was abandoned.  I
see Java as a repackaging of the NeWS concepts: smart client based on a VM.
The computer language used was changed to "C".

The event system accepted events onto a combined stream.  Interests were
published and the events were distributed up (?down) the display tree.  I do
have a copy of NeWS 1.0 as I bought the 3/60 for old times sake.  In fact I
have made a couple of efforts to get a copy of NeWS 2 - if anyone is offering!

I get the feeling a lot of stuff is being re-invented.

Cheers,
David

Peter William Lount wrote:

> Hi Dave,
>
> David Harris <dpharris at bc.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> >NeWS (Network extensible Windows System -(Java in Display Postscript?)
> from Sun
> >had an extensive events distribution system.
>
> It's interesting that NeWS and NeXTStep/OpenStep are both based on Display
> Postscript.
>
> Do you have any good internet resources on NeWS? I found a few, but I am
> looking for definitive sites and source code or detailed design
> descriptions if possible.
>
> How does the "extensive events distribution system" work?
>
> All the best,
>
> Peter William Lount
> peter at smalltalk.org
> http://www.smalltalk.org