News.com: X11: Apple's secret formula

J.W. Bizzaro • January 23, 2003

News.com: X11: Apple's secret formula

Apple Computer has been developing its own version of the X11 Windowing System. Joe Wilcox and Stephen Shankland write...

``X11 provides a windowing environment that lets Unix programs run on Mac OS X essentially the same way they do on their native operating systems. The tool also makes the process of developing a native OS X application faster, while allowing programs to run on a Mac in the meantime. Also, X11 running on OS X gives Unix users a portable option they might not have with Unix.

``Apple believes X11 is the key to bringing Unix applications to Mac OS X. `We look at X11 as a bridge, for people that have been in that (other) world and want to come to ours and couldn't quite get there or didn't have the opportunity or bandwidth to do so,' said Richard Kerris, Apple's senior director of developer technologies.
[...]
``Other versions of X11 for the Mac exist. But developers said Apple's version adds unique integration features and other elements. There are proprietary hooks into Apple's interface that permit cleaner integration with Mac OS X and other applications. For example, copy and paste between applications for X11 and Mac OS X's `Aqua' user interface is now possible with the regular keyboard shortcuts, and programs may be minimized to the dock.

``With Apple's tools, Kerris said, it's possible to `use your code and recompile it on ours with the same compiler you were using on the other platform and...you're up and running on our platform.'''

Full story:
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981495.html

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