------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following are paraphrases and excerpts from the Introduction to the, "X Window System | C Library and Protocol Reference", by Scheifler, Gettys, and Newman. Since the intro does not list X7 and X8, I can only guess that these were the protocol revisions which never existed. Was this due to MIT's decision to not license X at that time? May 1984 The birth of X. Bob Scheifler replaced the synchronous protocol of W with an asynchronous protocol and replaced the display lists with immediate mode graphics. May 1984 to January 1985 X progressed from version 1 to version 6. Early 1985 X6 ported to DEC's QVSS display on the MicroVAX. 2nd Quarter 1985 X redesigned to support color, with DEC's VAXstation-II/GPX as the intended target. Could this have been X7? Summer 1985 Despite limited licensing by MIT of X6, MIT decides not to license future versions of X. September 1985 Public release of X9. Fall 1985 Brown University ports X9 to the IBM RT/PC. A problem with reading unaligned data on the RT forced an incompatible change to the protocol. Hence the birth of X10. January 1986 X10R3 available --- a major watershed in X development. May 1986 Beginning of the intensive protocol design of X11, proposed by DECWSL's manager, Smokey Wallace, and Jim Gettys. -Joe Giampapa garof@sixcom.it garof%sixcom.it@uunet.uu.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------