> see article using the link below: > > http://www.linuxfaq.de/f/mirror/catalog.com/hopkins/unix-haters/x- > windows/disaster.html > > > to some degree, i think i agree with what was said here...if only we can > have the display PDF (quartz) of Mac OS X :P > > -dre
Programming X Window directly via Xlib and Xt is worse than using the Win32 API. I think the KDE group and Trolltech have done an incredible job with their desktop environment and Qt respectively. They've managed to hide a lot of the complexity of X. For one, you don't have to fiddle with resources (an incredible hassle) to customize your apps anymore. This is something that Motif, for all the niceness of its C-based/event-driven/non-object oriented API, couldn't or didn't address. (But there's still something to be said about the way it preserves the underlying X facilities. KDE, ironically, has no choice but to add another layer of bloat in order to simplify things!) Credit is also due to the XFree group for managing to simplify a lot of things in 4.x. With antialiased fonts in the works, things are definitely looking good. But despite these improvments, all the gory plumbing that I know exists underneath still makes me feel uncomfortable. That and the undeniable lack of standardization of the Linux desktop continue to turn off a fair number of developers and users. I do find it encouraging that there's some sort of consensus forming around KDE and Gnome. The converse is that sadly, I don't use Windowmaker much anymore. It just such a huge time sink to keep switching DEs that even though WM is original, elegant, and powerful in its own way, I end up using the more featureful and pragmatic KDE, as uninspiringly Windoze-like as it is. More and more sophisticated solutions will continue to appear for the Linux desktop and we will see continual improvement, but as a programmer, I can't help but find myself wishing for a GUI foundation that's better put together than X. Fresco, formerly Berlin, seems to be the best bet so far. I wonder if their adoption of CORBA was the right decision though... <thinks and furrows brow> _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Searchable Archives With Friendly Web Interface at http://marc.free.net.ph To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
