Message-ID: <bnews.sri-unix.3089>
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Path: utzoo!decvax!cca!jacob@NRL-CSS@sri-unix
X-Path: utzoo!decvax!cca!jacob@NRL-CSS@sri-unix
From: NRL-CSS@sri-unix
Date: Wed Sep  8 06:07:10 1982
Subject: Window Manager for Unix
Posted: Fri Sep  3 20:22:55 1982
Received: Wed Sep  8 06:07:10 1982

From: jacob at NRL-CSS (Rob Jacob)
Date: 1 Sep 1982 14:27:00-EDT
I have a program that lets a UNIX user divide his terminal screen
into windows and talk to a different program in each window.  We
run it on a VAX with 4.1bsd, but it also runs on a (not heavily
loaded!) 11 with Version 7 or 2.8bsd, and I have an older version
that will run under Version 6.

Here's the description:

    WM manages a collection of windows on a display terminal.
    Each window has its own shell, running in parallel with those
    in the other windows.  This permits a user to conduct several
    interactions in parallel, each in its own window.  The user
    can move from one window to another, re-position a window,
    or create or delete a window at any time without losing his
    or her place in any of the windows.  Windows can overlap or
    completely obscure one another; obscured windows can be
    "lifted" up and placed on top of the other windows.

(Incidentally, apropos of the recent discussion of stdio
buffering, my program suffers whenever a program assumes that it
should behave differently when it is talking to a terminal from
when it is talking to a pipe, since all of WM's subprocesses are
connected to it by pipes, even though they are really talking to
interactive users.  This means that programs that buffer stdout
to a pipe are sometimes clumsy, and screen editors are a complete
mess.)

I'll be happy to send my paper about WM and/or the code to anyone
who is interested.  Send me a U.S. mail address for the paper;
send a tape for the programs themselves.


                                        Rob Jacob
                                        Code 7590
                                        Naval Research Laboratory
                                        Washington, D.C. 20375

                                        jacob @ NRL-CSS