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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