Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!think!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!cbosgd!osu-eddie!bob%tut.cis.ohio-state.edu From: bob%tut.cis.ohio-state.edu@osu-eddie.UUCP (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: X server on a 785? Message-ID: <3835@osu-eddie.UUCP> Date: Sat, 18-Jul-87 23:22:47 EDT Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.3835 Posted: Sat Jul 18 23:22:47 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 08:35:39 EDT References: <8707172135.AA11127@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> Sender: news@osu-eddie.UUCP Reply-To: bob@ohio-state.ARPA (Bob Sutterfield) Distribution: world Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science Lines: 35 Summary: yes, but not really like you said In article <8707172135.AA11127@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> Wilson.Harvey@MAPS.CS.CMU.EDU writes: >We have a small network of microvaxes, all running X. ... What we'd >like to be able to do is have an X server run on our 785 so that we >can run X applications from that machine on any of the microvax >displays. Is this possible? Well, to strictly answer your question, yes. You can get one of DEC's old Unibus workstation interfaces and run the VAX X server on your 785. But what you really want to do is to use your 785 as an application server, and have those applications talk to the X display servers that are already running on your MicroVAXen. And yes, it's pretty easy and that is what makes X a `network-distributable window system', or whatever the sales glossies say :-) First, take your X library sources (Xlib, XMenu, Xt, etc.) and make them on the 785. Then take all your X client code (xterm, xload, GNU Emacs, xfu, xbar, ...), make it all, and run it with an argument that specifies what display server it is to drive (something like `xterm baz:0'). Remember to tell baz `xhost mumble' where mumble is the 785. We run X servers on Suns and uVAXen and HP Bobcats and Renaissances and IBM RTs and a Macintosh II; and X clients on all the above plus Pyramids and an Encore Multimax and a VAX. Soon I hope to put clients on the local Cray (high drool factor :-). Since all you're doing is encapsulating the X protocol in IP packets and throwing them hither and yon, the clients don't care what sort of server they are talking to, and vice versa (for the most part); nor whether the client is on the same machine as the server. Enjoy! -=- Bob Sutterfield, Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277 bob@ohio-state.{arpa,csnet} or ...!cbosgd!osu-eddie!bob soon: bob@aargh.cis.ohio-state.edu