[Info-vax] VMS Desktop system

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Sunday, 14 September 2014 15:06:58 UTC+1, Shark8  wrote:
> On 9/14/2014 12:51 AM, helbig at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip 
> 
> Helbig---undress to reply) wrote:
> 
> > It is no problem to read PostScript, PDF etc on VMS.
> 
> 
> 
> I think you misunderstood my parenthetical comment on PostScript -- is 
> 
> wasn't about the rendering of files, but about possibly its use in the 
> 
> display-system. Think Display PostScript.
> 
> 
> 
> >>  and supplemented with "lightweight and accessible from
> 
> >>  other machines [possibly non-VMS] over a network" given
> 
> >>  the propensity of VMS towards more "server-esque" tasks.
> 
> >
> 
> > Again, not something I'm /remotely/ interested in (remotely accessing
> 
> > VMS), though I have been known to log in using a VT220 emulator on an
> 
> > iPad.  :-|
> 
> 
> 
> Fixed for missed pun. ;)
> 
> 
> 
> >> There are apparently a few windowing-managers for VMS (I've seen X and
> 
> >> DECWindows mentioned);
> 
> >
> 
> > DECWindows is just another name for X.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, I didn't know that.

"DECWindows is just another name for X.

Thanks, I didn't know that."

Maybe that's because, although the terms are often used interchangeably
and frequently that misuse doesn't matter, they are actually different.

DECwindows is built on top of X.

X is widely known; the definition of X on Wikipedia seems reasonable.

DECwindows goes back a long time, to not that long after VMS (and
Digital UNIX) got graphic support. In due course there was even
DECwindows support (client and server) on VAXELN.

DECwindows was/is built on top of X (the protocol and the libraries)
and adds another layer of libraries and tools and even applications,
and maybe some DEC-specific stuff in X itself (such as DECwindows
using DECnet as a transport). 

DECwindows provides a window manager (which X itself doesn't), and
other such fairly basic application-independent functionality.

A full DECwindows installation even includes a functional desktop
(or two, depending on the particular vintage of DECwindows in the
picture). There's the classical DECwindows desktop, or later on 
there was the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) desktop (now
released as open source).

The industry standard Motif GUI and toolkit (based on top of X) is
in there with DECwindows somewhere too, for any reasonable version
of DECwindows. Motif is also now open source.

There's a selection of DECwindows documentation available, depending
on what in particular you want to know.

X and DECwindows are *not* the same. They do have a lot in common.