XCONSORTIUM(1) USER COMMANDS XCONSORTIUM(1)
NAME
MIT X Consortium
SYNOPSIS
X11R4 is brought to you by the MIT X Consortium.
DESCRIPTION
X Window System research began in the summer of 1984 at MIT
as an informal joint undertaking between the Laboratory for
Computer Science and Project Athena. Since that time,
researchers and engineers at numerous other universities and
companies have been involved in the design and implementa-
tion.
The MIT X Consortium was formed in January of 1988 to
further the development of the X Window System. It is part
of the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT, and has as
its major goal the promotion of cooperation within the com-
puter industry in the creation of standard software inter-
faces at all layers in the X Window System environment.
MIT's role is to provide the vendor-neutral architectural
and administrative leadership required to make this work.
The Consortium is financially self-supporting, with member-
ship open to any organization. There are two categories of
membership, Member (for large organizations) and Affiliate
(for smaller organizations). A list of members as of the
public release of X11R4 is given below.
The Director of the X Consortium acts as the ultimate archi-
tect for all X specifications and software. The activities
of the Consortium are overseen by an MIT Steering Committee,
which helps set policy and provides strategic guidance and
review of the Consortium's activities. An Advisory Commit-
tee made up of member representatives meets regularly to
review the Consortium's plans, assess its progress, and sug-
gest future directions.
Most of the Consortium's activities take place via elec-
tronic mail, with meetings when required. As designs and
specifications take shape, interest groups are formed from
experts in the participating organizations. Typically a
small multi-organization architecture team leads the design,
with others acting as close observers and reviewers. Once a
complete specification is produced, it may be submitted for
formal technical review by the Consortium as a proposed
standard. The standards process includes public review
(outside the Consortium) and a demonstration of proof of
concept, typically established with a public, portable
implementation of the specification, (although other methods
are possible on a case by case basis).
X Version 11 Last change: Release 4 1
XCONSORTIUM(1) USER COMMANDS XCONSORTIUM(1)
The MIT staff of the Consortium also maintains a software
and documentation collection, containing both Consortium-
developed and user-contributed materials, and endeavors to
make periodic distributions of this collection available to
the public without license and for a minimal fee. X11R4 is
the fourth such distribution. The Consortium also sponsors
an annual conference, open to the public, to promote the
exchange of technical information about X.
STAFF
The Director of the X Consortium is Bob Scheifler,
rws@expo.lcs.mit.edu. The MIT staff members are as follows.
Donna Converse, converse@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Jim Fulton, jim@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Michelle Leger, michelle@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Keith Packard, keith@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Chris Peterson, kit@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Ralph Swick, swick@athena.mit.edu, an employee of Digital
Equipment Corporation working at MIT Project Athena, also
works directly with the Consortium staff.
POSTAL ADDRESS
The MIT X Consortium can be reached by writing to
Bob Scheifler
MIT X Consortium
Laboratory for Computer Science
545 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA 02139
MEMBERS
Apple Computer, Inc.
American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Bull S.A.
Control Data Corporation
Cray Research, Inc.
Data General Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Eastman Kodak Company
Fujitsu Limited
Hewlett-Packard Company
International Business Machines Corporation
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Motorola, Inc.
NEC Corporation
NCR Corporation
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
OMRON Corporation
Prime Computer, Inc.
X Version 11 Last change: Release 4 2
XCONSORTIUM(1) USER COMMANDS XCONSORTIUM(1)
Rich, Inc.
Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Siemens AG
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tektronix, Inc.
Texas Instruments, Inc.
Unisys Corporation
Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Xerox Corporation
AFFILIATES
ACER America Corporation
Adobe Systems
Advanced Graphics Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
CETIA - Compagnie Europeene des Techniques de l'Ingenierie Assistee
Codonics, Inc.
Evans & Sutherland
GfxBase
INESC - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores
Integrated Solutions
Interactive Systems Corporation
Interactive Development Environments
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc.
Key Systems Engineering Corp.
Jupiter Systems
University of Kent at Canterbury
Landmark Graphics Corporation
Locus Computing
University of Lowell
Matrox International
Megatek Corporation
MIPS Computer Systems
MITRE Corporation
Network Computing Devices
Nova Graphics International
Open Software Foundation
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
PCS Computer Systeme GmbH
Ramtek Corporation
Samsung Software America
SGIP - Societe de Gestion et d'Informatique Publicis
Software Productivity Consortium
Solbourne Computer Inc.
Spectragraphics Corporation
Stanford University
Stardent Computer
Tatung Science and Technology
UNICAD, Inc.
X Version 11 Last change: Release 4 3
XCONSORTIUM(1) USER COMMANDS XCONSORTIUM(1)
Visual Technology Inc.
X/Open Company Ltd.
X Version 11 Last change: Release 4 4