Re: X Windows

[glyn@cs.UAlberta.CA (Reade Glyn Devin)]

In article <1993May26.042343.7434@fawlty.towers.oz.au> neville@fawlty.towers.oz.au (Neville Smith) writes:

>BTW Has anyone mucked around with the idea of putting X Windows
>on the GS? I know John MacLean did but his hard disk wasn't
>big enough. Anyone else?

Jawaid Bazyar has (I believe) commented in the past that it is not
practical because (excuse me, JB, if it was someone else who brought
this out):

	1.  many users do not have sufficient disk space to use
	    X windows; and

	2.  the resolution currenly available for graphics is not
	    high enough.

Reason 2 is subjective and I neither support nor deny it.  However
does anyone actually know an (approximate) quantitative amount
for the space required for X (reason 1)?  Let's make the assumption
that just one widget set (say Athena) is supported.  What I'm
wondering is perhaps with the improved availability of low-cost
hard drives, perhaps this is not too much of a limitation.

In any case, _I_ would not want to try to port X yet; I would prefer
to wait on Gno v1.1, a stablized Orca/C 2.0.x, and some other
tools like RCS, a better make (working on it folks...), diff, etc.

At any rate, it is my understanding that Jawaid's Telcom II will
provide some of the X-style functionality; it particular the
ability to run various independant shell windows from the desktop.
(I'm looking forward to it, Jawaid!)

Come to think of it, how many out there could _actually_ make use
of a full X implementation on your IIgs's?  This means that you
are networked; I don't think a modem connection would give sufficient
throughput.  I suspect the number is fairly small.

--
	G. Devin Reade		glyn@cs.ualberta.ca