The X Window System has been proposed as a Federal Information Processing Standard by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology – previously known as the National Bureau of Standards. The standard, which has a public comment period set to close this week, includes the X11 protocol, X Library and X Intrinsics. Specifications for these elements are the basis of the Open Software Foundation’s OSF/Motif interface, AT&T’s Open Look and other graphical user interfaces, as well as being the basis of current IEEE 1201 committee work on high level-tool kit standards. They are also supported by the X Consortium and X/Open. The Federal Standards procedure is a necessary stage in the long process of establishing a standard, and provides a means for federal customers to specify conformance for any graphical user interface products tendered for procurement. The Open Software Foundation said that it would be encouraging its members and other open systems organisations to support the proposals.
