And Mountain View, California-based Silicon Graphics Inc has become the latest manufacturer to support Display PostScript for full colour publishing on its Iris workstation line, following a licensing deal with PostScript originator Adobe Systems Inc. Both companies claim that the implementation is the first full 32-bit version of Display PostScript to be integrated with the X standard and OSF/Motif. Silicon Graphics is also working on the integration of X with its proprietary graphics environment. The move reflects a growing trend to offer Display PostScript with X, and as an additional alternative to Xlib for companies requiring an exact on-screen representation of the final output. IBM and DEC have also been working on the technology, as has NeXT Computer Inc – one of the few companies seemingly not interested in X Window. Sun Microsystems integrated X with its PostScript-based NeWS windowing system after failing to convince the rest of the industry to use NeWS as a standard windowing system. PostScript may well now become the next officially accepted extension to the X Window standard, akin to the multi-company PEX initiative to extend PHIGS compatibility to X Window, resulting in a standard method of combining the two. Frame Technology UK co-founder and senior software engineer Charles Corfield reckons Display PostScript and X will progressively become more closely integrated. Printers and screens are both output devices, so why not use the same code he says.
