Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!think!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!dleigh From: dleigh@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Darren Leigh) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: design goals Message-ID: <577@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 16:27:50 EDT Article-I.D.: hplabsz.577 Posted: Tue Jul 21 16:27:50 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jul-87 06:43:42 EDT References: <8707210144.AA13974@clutx.clarkson.edu> Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Lines: 27 Summary: Roll your own In article <8707210144.AA13974@clutx.clarkson.edu>, bh01@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (Russell Nelson) writes: > Is one of the design goals of V11 to run on a machine with 16 bit integers? > I sure hope so, because X would be perfect here at Clarkson where our School > of Engineering is putting 75 286 boxes on a network with a wide variety of > machines talking TCP/IP. And this is just a start. > > Microsoft is only promising that they're thinking about starting to write > network transparent graphics. X is here, but not if it won't run on our > machines. As I see it, if X can't be ported to a 16 bitter, we either go > without X, or wait until the 286-pin compatible 386 comes out. > -russ X is not a piece of software, but a protocol. There is nothing inherent in the X protocol that forbids using it on 16 bit machines. The server software that gets distributed may have some probems, but you could either modify this yourself or re-write it using the original as a model. The problems you might have with X on a 286 machine are lack of memory and lack of multi-tasking (needed unless you just want a dumb X terminal). You might also want to get graphics screens with a decent resolution; EGA or less will be rather cramped and you won't be able to play xtrek. Darren Leigh dleigh@hplabs.hp.com