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akgua!gatech!seismo!brl-adm!brl-smoke!smoke!...@mit-borax.arpa
From: s...@mit-borax.arpa
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Window Systems and Job Control
Message-ID: <2369@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-Apr-86 16:18:54 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.2369
Posted: Fri Apr 4 16:18:54 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Apr-86 07:45:37 EST
Sender: n...@brl-smoke.ARPA
Lines: 20
I'm writing this from the perspective of a 4.2 BSD user.
As I understand it, some people here are saying that job control is not
good because windows are so much better.
I haven't had the opportunity of using a windowed unix environment,
so I'm not going to touch the question of whether job control is
necessary GIVEN A NICE WINDOW SYSTEM.
I will say, though, that for those of us who do NOT have a window
system (I sometimes log in over hardcopy terminals, at work I use a
24-line heathkit terminal, at home I use a 16 line terminal) job
control offers a lot of functionality that systems without it don't
provide. We will need job control until the last hardcopy terminal
dies, until the last 24 X 80 screen is is a museum.
---
``Don't be tricked by what you see, you've got two ways to go.
Freedom of choice is what you've got.
Freedom from choice is what you want.''
-DEVO
s...@borax.lcs.mit.edu, s...@mit-borax.ARPA
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phri!roy
From: r...@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Window Systems and Job Control
Message-ID: <2306@phri.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Apr-86 22:39:56 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2306
Posted: Sat Apr 5 22:39:56 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Apr-86 21:25:46 EST
References: <2369@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: r...@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 32
Summary: windows for the common man
In article <2...@brl-smoke.ARPA> s...@mit-borax.arpa (Steven Augart) writes:
> [...] for those of us who do NOT have a window system [...] job control
> offers a lot of functionality that systems without it don't provide. We
> will need job control until the last hardcopy terminal dies, until the
> last 24 X 80 screen is is a museum.
There is no reason why you need a bit-map display to have windows.
We run the Lennon/Truscott WM window manager which provides a sort of poor
man's window system on ASCII terminals (even on our old ADM-5's). It's not
as fancy as windows on a Sun, but it works. There really isn't much excuse
for not having windows, and WM puts to bed the old wives' tale that you
need a $5k piece of hardware on your desk to get them (you do however need
4.2bsd, at least for the version of WM we have). Come to think of it,
emacs gives you ASCII windows too (with Apollo-style transcript pads).
Of course, having 4.2, we also have job control. Guess what? They
complement each other very nicely. Right now, I've got an "su" running in
the background with wm underneath it. In one window I'm running a big job
and in another window I'm monitoring the progress it's making. In reality
however, I've got the whole schmear hidden in the background while I read
news for a while.
I suppose I could have just opened up another full-screen window
and su'ed back to myself to run news, but I didn't feel like doing it that
way. I wouldn't have the same history list I left behind with my original
login shell (not to mention eating up another pty). The capability exists
to have both job control and windows on an ASCII terminal, so why not have
them both? Each solves a different problem.
--
Roy Smith, {allegra,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016