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points by WillAdams 3 days ago | 0 comments

One will still be missing:

- pop-up/vertical main menu

- PANTONE colour library

- Display PostScript

I actually used similar machines running NeXT/OPENSTEP, Mac OS, and Windows shortly after graduation and the performance was smoother and more consistent in NeXTstep 3.3, though I will admit OPENSTEP 4.2 felt just a tad more sluggish, but it was far and away the more useful and capable machine, even when running the same software (e.g., Altsys Virtuoso vice Aldus Freehand, or FrameMaker or WordPerfect).

Probably helped that the Cube had 52MB RAM, the Mac 8MB, and the Windows 12MB.

[–] OhMeadhbh 2 days ago

Talking about DPS... People will tell you that the Quartz/PDF rendering engine is just the same as DPS, but they're wrong. NEWS was... delightful. It was close enough to DPS as to make little difference, but running on SPARC processor. I just looked at some NeWS screen-shots and they look much worse than I remember. Greyscale NeXTStep on the mono monitor was a tough act to follow. Even the colour NeXTStations weren't as sharp.

[–] WillAdams 1 day ago

It also enabled nxhosting, which was magical --- allowed one to do remote control over dial-up (so long as one didn't manipulate too large a pixel image).

I really wish Display GhostScript had gotten traction w/ the GNUstep folks.

On comp.sys.next.advocacy Mike Paquette talked about how he might not have stayed at Apple after the NeXT acquisition if he'd realized that that first decade was going to be a re-tread of his first decade at NeXT (writing Quartz vice writing Display PostScript) which I think really understates how important that code is.