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From: whm@sunquest.UUCP (Bill Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news,comp.windows.x
Subject: ``X kills networks'' and X vs. NeWS performance in general
Message-ID: <111@sunquest.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jul 88 20:23:37 GMT
References: <23581@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <14318@hc.DSPO.GOV>
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Tucson
Lines: 54

In article <14318@hc.DSPO.GOV>, tomlin@hc.DSPO.GOV (Bob Tomlinson) writes:
>
> ...
> Meanwhile the NeWS client side is trivially portable to Encores
> (as well as MIPS, Alliant, etc.) and is actually being used in large
> distributed applications that would *kill* a network if the applications
> were using X.  ...

Bob, how well is your statement re X killing a network based on fact?  If you
folks have done some performance studies, I'm sure that everyone would like
to hear about the results.  If you're just speculating, what are the
suppositions that led to your conclusion?  (i.e., what was the server/
client mix, how much client/server interaction was required for X and NeWS
respectively, and what was the network bandwidth?)

We've been unable to find anyone who's done performance comparisons of X and
NeWS.  Let me throw out a couple of simple problems for X and NeWS fans to try
on their favorite system:

	a) Create a C array of endpoint coordinates for 100,000 lines and then 
	    draw them.  x and y values for endpoint coordinates should be
	    selected using a uniform random distribution and scaled to
	    produce lines with a mean length of five inches.  Display the
	    lines in a 10x10 inch window.

	   Variations:
	    After all the lines after been drawn, erase them in reverse order.

	    Erase each line after it is drawn.

	    Draw rectangles using the endpoints as cornerpoints.

	    Generate the endpoints on the server, if you can.

	b) Using 10-point characters put up an 80x60 character window and
 	    scroll through 1000 80-character lines.  The 61st line will cause
	    the 1st line to disapear and all other lines to move up one line,
	    just like a scrolling CRT.  Use /usr/dict/words as the source of
	    text.  Note that each line should be 80 non-blank characters, for
	    example:

10th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9thaAaronABAAbabaabackabaloneabandonabaseabashabatea

	   Variations:
	    After displaying the last line, scroll back through the lines to
	     the first line.

	    Use any non-repetitive text from any source that you want to.

-------------
Bill Mitchell
sunquest!whm@arizona.edu
uunet!sunquest!whm
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