Editing NeWS

{{short description|Discontinued windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems}}
{{About|the windowing system by Sun Microsystems|the UNIX workstation series produced by Sony|Sony NEWS}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = NeWS
| title                  = NeWS
| logo                   = <!-- Image name is enough -->
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| screenshot             = HyperTIESAuthoring.jpg
| caption                = [[HyperTIES]] browser and [[Gosling Emacs|Emacs]] authoring tool with [[pie menu]]s on NeWS
| screenshot_size        = 300px
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| collapsible            = 
| author                 = [[James Gosling]], [[David S. H. Rosenthal]]
| developer              = [[Sun Microsystems]]
| released               = {{Start date and age|1986|10}}
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| operating system       = [[SunOS]]
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| language footnote      = 
| genre                  = [[Windowing system]]
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}}
'''NeWS''' ('''Network extensible Window System''') is a discontinued [[windowing system]] developed by [[Sun Microsystems]] in the mid-1980s.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.art.net/studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/lang/NeWS.html | title = NeWS - Network extensible Window System | access-date = 2008-01-08 | author = Don Hopkins | author-link = Don Hopkins }}</ref> Originally known as "SunDew",<ref>{{cite book | last = Gosling | first = James | author-link = James Gosling | editor = F.R.A. Hopgood, D.A. Duce ... | title = Methodology of Window Management (Eurographics Seminars) Proceedings of an Alvey Workshop at Cosener's House, Abingdon, UK, April 1985  | url = http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf/literature/books/wm/overview.htm | access-date = 2008-01-08 | year = 1986 | publisher = [[Springer-Verlag]] | location = UK | isbn = 3-540-16116-3 | chapter = Article 5 - SunDew | chapter-url = http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf/literature/books/wm/p005.htm }}</ref> its primary authors were [[James Gosling]] and [[David S. H. Rosenthal]]. The NeWS [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] was based on [[PostScript]] (as was the later [[Display PostScript]], although the two projects were otherwise unrelated) extending it to allow interaction and multiple "contexts" to support windows. Like PostScript, NeWS could be used as a complete programming language, but unlike PostScript, NeWS could be used to make complete interactive programs with mouse support and a [[Graphical user interface|GUI]].

== Design ==
NeWS started by implementing a PostScript interpreter running in a [[cooperative multitasking]] fashion, since, unlike PostScript in a printer, NeWS would be displaying a number of PostScript programs at the same time on one screen. It also added a complete view hierarchy, based on viewports known as ''canvases'', and a synchronous event distribution system, supporting ''[[Event (computing)|events]]'', ''[[Callback (computer programming)|interests]]'', ''[[Thread (computing)|threads]]'' and ''[[Monitor (synchronization)|monitors]]''.

Like the view system in most GUIs, NeWS included the concept of a tree of embedded views along which events were passed. For instance, a mouse click would generate an event that would be passed to the object directly under the mouse pointer, say a button. If this object did not respond to the event, the object "under" the button would then receive the message, and so on. NeWS included a complete model for these events, including timers and other automatic events, input queues for devices such as [[computer mouse|mice]] and [[computer keyboard|keyboard]]s, and other functionality required for full interaction. The input handling system was designed to provide strong event synchronization guarantees that were not possible with asynchronous protocols like X.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf/literature/books/wm/p005.htm|title=SunDew - A Distributed and Extensible Window System}}</ref>

To support user interface widgets, NeWS expanded the original PostScript [[Stack-oriented programming|stack-based language]] into a complete [[object-oriented programming|object-oriented]] (OO) programming style with [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]]. This eliminated the need for an external OO language to build a complete application. Since all of these additions were implemented as extensions to PostScript, it was possible to write simple PostScript code that would result in a running, onscreen, interactive program. Two popular demonstration programs were an onscreen clock, which required about two pages of code, and a program which drew a pair of eyes that followed the cursor as it moved around the screen. The eyeball program was shown at [[SIGGRAPH]] in 1988 and was the inspiration for the later well-known X application [[xeyes]].

NeWS included several libraries of user interface elements ([[graphical widget|widgets]]), themselves written in NeWS. These widgets ran all of their behavior in the NeWS interpreter, and only required communications to an outside program (or more NeWS code) when the widget demanded it. For example, a toggle button's display routine can query the button's state (pressed or not) and change its display accordingly. The button's PostScript code can also react to mouse clicks by changing its state from "pressed" to "not pressed" and vice versa. All this can happen in the windowing server without interaction with the client program, and only when the mouse is released on the button will an event be sent off for handling. This was more sophisticated than the [[X Window System]] server model, which can only report "mouse button was clicked down here", "mouse is now here", "mouse button was released here" events to a client, which then has to figure out if the event is in the button, switch the state, and finally instruct the server to display the new state. If client and server are not on the same machine, these interactions must travel over the network, which results in [[round-trip delay time|a delay in responding]].

[[File:The NeWS Toolkit screen snapshot.gif|thumb|right|TNT-based applications]]
The best example of such a library is TNT (''The NeWS Toolkit'') which Sun released in 1989. Sun also shipped an earlier "Lite" toolkit intended for example purposes and making small programs.

== Porting ==
Although adoption was never widespread, several companies and universities licensed NeWS and adapted it for various uses, creating both commercial and non-commercial ports.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ports of Sun's NeWS |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/VpdsNfxERQQ/m/PJO1eqF9TdAJ |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=groups.google.com}}</ref>

* [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]] used a version of it named [[4Sight]] to replace their proprietary [[MEX (windowing system)|MEX]] windowing system.
* Grasshopper Group created a Macintosh port called MacNeWS.
* [[Parallax Graphics]] extended it to be able to deal with live video.
* Architech Corporation ported NeWS to [[OS/2]],<ref>James Gosling, David S. H. Rosenthal, Michelle J. Arden (1989). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xHSoK66z34YC&pg=PA193 The NeWS Book]''. Springer Verlag. p. 193. {{ISBN|978-0-387-96915-2}}. Google Book Search. Retrieved 2009-03-29.</ref> calling it NeWS/2
* [[Columbia University]] ported it on [[HP 9000]] series 3000
* [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] ported it on a Cray XMP-24
* TGV ported X11/NeWS on a [[VAXstation 2000]] running [[OpenVMS|VMS]]
* Wedge Computer Inc. ported it to MacOS
* [[Whitechapel Computer Works|Whitechapel]] ported it to their MIPS workstations<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/bitsavers_Datamation70901_85998605 |title=magazine :: Datamation :: Datamation V33 N17 19870901 |date=1987-09-01}}</ref>
* [[Acorn Computers|Acorn]] ported it to their computers
* Ameristar ported it on the Amiga 2000
* [[Alliant Computer Systems|Alliant]] ported X11/NeWS on their Visualization<ref>{{Citation |title=Alliant - The Visualization Series |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LZaJadtv5E |language=en |access-date=2022-07-01}}</ref> minisupercomputers
* [[University of Michigan]] ported it on Apollo workstations, in monochrome mode<ref>{{Cite web |title=NeWS on the Apollo |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/Q4P6Y2b03qA/m/lm466N4uQEQJ |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=groups.google.com}}</ref>
* [[Pixar]] ported it to their [[Pixar Image Computer|Image Computer]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-07-06 |title=From Pixar To Velocity Engine |url=http://www.byte.com/documents/s=202/BYT19991110S0005/index2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010706230211/http://www.byte.com/documents/s=202/BYT19991110S0005/index2.htm |archive-date=2001-07-06  |access-date=2022-07-02 }}</ref>

== Applications ==

The [[OPEN LOOK]] version of the [[FrameMaker]] desktop publishing program, developed by [[Frame Technology Corp.]] with funding mainly from [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[NSA]], was one of the few commercial products that ran on NeWS. HyperLook, developed by [[Arthur van Hoff]] at [[The Turing Institute]], was an interactive application design system.<ref>[http://www.art.net/studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html HyperLook (aka HyperNeWS (aka GoodNeWS))<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Don Hopkins]] developed a NeWS version of ''[[SimCity (1989 video game)|SimCity]]'' that was built with HyperLook.

A commercial drawing program, [[Altsys]] Virtuoso, was produced for NeWS; it was a port of FreeHand with additional functionality that took advantage of the PostScript environment. Unfortunately Sun announced the end of support for NeWS just as Virtuoso became ready to ship.

== Competition with [[X Window System]] ==

Compared to [[X Window System|X]], NeWS was vastly more powerful,{{cn|date=November 2022}} but also slower (especially for local connections). The C API was very low level and difficult to use, so most NeWS programs tended to be entirely written in PostScript.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} Another factor in the popularity was that Sun charged a fee to license the NeWS source code, while the MIT X11 code was free of cost.

The first versions of NeWS emulated the X10 protocol by translating the calls into NeWS PostScript. Speed problems plus the existence of programs that relied on the exact pixel results of X10 calls, and the obsolescence of X10, forced Sun to release an X11/NeWS hybrid called ''[[Xnews (X11 server)|Xnews]]'' which ran an X11 server in parallel with the PostScript interpreter. This seriously degraded the NeWS interpreter performance and was not considered a very good X11 server either. Sun also implemented the OPEN LOOK user interface specification in several toolkits: The NeWS Toolkit (TNT) was an OPEN LOOK toolkit written in PostScript that ran in the NeWS server. [[OLIT]] was built on the same [[X Toolkit Intrinsics|Xt]] (X Intrinsics) base as [[Motif (software)|Motif]], and [[XView]] used the same [[API]]s as Sun's earlier [[SunView]] window system.

After it was clear that OPEN LOOK had lost out to [[Motif (software)|Motif]] in popularity, and after [[Adobe Systems|Adobe]] acquired [[FrameMaker]], Sun stopped supporting NeWS.{{CN|date=October 2023}} Products based on NeWS stopped being developed.{{When|date=October 2023}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/NeWS_descr_oct_1993.html a short description of NeWS]
* [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.windows.news/msg/2adcf09ada55201d?dmode=source The NeWS eyeball program]
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4zG0uecYSMA NeWS: A Networked and Extensible Window System, lecture by James Gosling]

{{Sun Microsystems}}

[[Category:PostScript]]
[[Category:Sun Microsystems software]]
[[Category:Windowing systems]]
[[Category:1986 software]]