[TUHS] "X Window System At 40"

[TUHS] "X Window System At 40"

[Alexis]

David Rosenthal reflects on his involvement with the development 
of the X Window System:

> Although most of my time was spent developing NeWS, I rapidly 
> ported X version 10 to the Sun/1, likely the second port to 
> non-DEC hardware. It worked, but I had to kludge several areas 
> that depended on DEC-specific hardware. The worst was the 
> completely DEC-specific keyboard support.
>
> Because it was clear that a major redesign of X was needed to 
> make it portable and in particular to make it work well on Sun 
> hardware, Gosling and I worked with the teams at DEC SRC and WRL 
> on the design of X version 11. Gosling provided significant 
> input on the imaging model, and I designed the keyboard 
> support. As the implementation evolved I maintained the Sun port 
> and did a lot of testing and bug fixing. All of which led to my 
> trip to Boston to pull all-nighters at MIT finalizing the 
> release.
>
> My involvement continued after the first release. I was the 
> editor and main author of the X Inter-Client Communications 
> Conventions Manual (ICCCM) that forms Part III of Robert 
> Scheifler and Jim Gettys' X Window System. 

-- https://blog.dshr.org/2024/07/x-window-system-at-40.html


Alexis.