re asynchronous x windows no it isn t it is the x window system or x or x or any of a number of other designations accepted by the x consortium in fact doing man x on pretty much any x machine will tell you the x consortium requests that the following names be used when referring to this software x x window system x version x window system version x there is no such thing as x windows or x window despite the repeated misuse of the forms by the trade rags this probably tells you something about how much to trust the trade rags if they can t even get the name of the window system right why should one trust anything else they have to say i used to think this way and not just about x for example incorrect english constructs such as its raining or it s window id annoy me however there comes a time when popular usage starts to dictate the way things really are in the world indeed the fact that x won out over news was really down to popular opinion i know we all think it s technically superior as well on a related topic who is to say that color is more or less correct than colour being irish and hence using english english as opposed to american english i always use the latter except of course for api terms such as xalloccolor and colormap in a world that uses the term windows to refer to microsoft windows perhaps the time has come to accept x windows as a valid term for x i think that this is a more concise and uncluttered term than say the x window system and let s face it almost everyone uses it ultimately we all need product sales to more than just x literate people in this respect product recognition is important and a short snappy descriptive title x is positively obscure will help when dealing with the average punter it s sad i thought i was a software engineer indeed it is unfortunate that x did not become popularly known as windows and let ms worry about whether it should be called microsoft windows or the microsoft window system or how about just plain microsoft to summarise or should that be summarize the point of this message i think there are far more pressing issues facing the x community than worrying about subtle distinctions in the naming of the window system or should that be windowing system whatever gets recognised is fine by me i agree that one should be careful in interpreting what trade papers say however i would be reluctant to come to this conclusion purely on the basis of how they name the x window system gerard o driscoll gerard odriscoll dps co uk du pont pixel systems ltd
