taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (05/02/90)
Jim Meiss of UC Boulder asks:
> I have heard that Apple makes an X window emulator for the Mac...
There are actually two different products that offer X Windows on
the Macintosh; eXodus from White Pine Software, and MacX from Apple.
eXodus takes the approach of offering a MultiFinder compatible single
window which acts as a "virtual X Terminal"; that is, all of your
X windows appear *within* the eXodus window. Kind of funky, but it
does give you some advantages (especially if you're on a multi-head
(e.g. multiple monitor) Macintosh setup). White Pine only this weeka
announced an upgrade of the product to version 2.0, which now includes
support for color X applications, as well as better performance (partly
due to it being now written around X11R4 rather than R3). Note that
with this new version you can also open up to six different "virtual
X terminals" at once (which is a great boon, sort of like a poor
persons MIT ROOMS paradigm).
On the other hand, MacX from Apple, which isn't yet shipping but has
been announced, is a beautiful, seamless integration of X Windows and
the familiar Macintosh desktop. You can have individual X windows on
your screen interleaved and overlapping with Multifinder windows. You
can also easily cut and paste between X and Mac application (not to
mention A/UX applications). Apple has shown this product at a number
of different shows now, including Xhibition and MacWorld.
Which is best? Well, it depends on what you want. Find a reputable
dealer that has both running and try them both out. Alternatively, I
know that both the Apple and White Pine folk are good people, so you
might well arrange for a month or two evaluation of each unit side by
side to ascertain which is best for your particular needs.
In any case, let us know what your choice is and why! (and
please post that article to comp.sys.mac.comm, if you can)
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylordudek@ai.toronto.edu (Gregory Dudek) (05/04/90)
While we're on the subject of X for the Mac, I was wondering if anybody has written a X porting library for the Mac. What I want is a set of routines that are called like Xlib calls, but just do the right local Mac thing. This IS NOT a request for X servers, but just for a quick hack that will let me port some X code over to the Mac. For example, XCreateWindow becomes a call to NewWindow while XOpenDisplay does nothing but return a static "display". A partial library of this sort looks pretty easy. I nobody has done it yet, I'll do it myself for the 20 or so Xlib routines I need. Greg Dudek
deangeli@granite.cr.bull.com (Douglas J. DeAngelis) (05/04/90)
I feel the need to make another point about the differences between MacX and eXodus: 1) Apple lists A/UX as one of its system requirements for running MacX or X11. This may at first seem logical, but there is no fundamental reason to tie these together. eXodus makes no such requirement, and for people who are just looking to turn a few Macs around the site into Xterms, this requirement could add significantly to the cost (especially considering the Apple view that the extended functionality of 2.0 will command significantly more cash flow than previous versions...) 2) eXodus is an R4 server that works _today_. The R4 server that Apple has announced (called X11 for A/UX), in their words, "takes over the console display". Another minor ;-) point is that it doesn't work yet. Crashing UNIX systems on a routine basis is much less pleasant than a normal, friendly Mac crash. 3) Lastly, in the words of the immortal Bill Murray, "who you gonna call" when you start having problems? Nuff said. -Doug -- ========================================================================== Douglas J. DeAngelis Bull Worldwide Information Systems deangeli@granite.cr.bull.com 300 Concord Road MA30-852A (508) 671-2552 Billerica, MA 01821
cs223101@umbc5.umbc.edu (CMSC 223/01011) (05/04/90)
I'm slightly confused by all this Xterm wordplay. What I'd like to know is if I called one of our Vaxstations running X, using one of the abovementioned programs, will I be able to view the session in X? Or are these just local X emulators? [RICH]
mgchow@Apple.COM (Mike Chow) (05/05/90)
In article <1990May4.121905.16042@granite.cr.bull.com> deangeli@granite.cr.bull.com (Douglas J. DeAngelis) writes: >I feel the need to make another point about the differences between MacX >and eXodus: > >1) Apple lists A/UX as one of its system requirements for running MacX > or X11. This may at first seem logical, but there is no fundamental > reason to tie these together. eXodus makes no such requirement, and > for people who are just looking to turn a few Macs around the site > into Xterms, this requirement could add significantly to the cost > (especially considering the Apple view that the extended functionality > of 2.0 will command significantly more cash flow than previous versions...) > Sorry, but you're confused about MacX. MacX will run on both MacOS and A/UX, and the real beauty is that the same MacX binary is used in both enrivonments. You don't have to have A/UX to run MacX. Another point is that MacX allows you to use a Macintosh Window manager for your X windows, allowing very nice integration with the Macintosh desktop. >2) eXodus is an R4 server that works _today_. The R4 server that Apple > has announced (called X11 for A/UX), in their words, "takes over the > console display". Another minor ;-) point is that it doesn't work yet. > Crashing UNIX systems on a routine basis is much less pleasant than a > normal, friendly Mac crash. I'm confused here. First of all, as far as I know, Apple has not shipped an X server based on R4. So, are you talking about the R4 sample server from MIT? If you're talking about unreleased/unsupported software, your comment that it "doesn't work yet" isn't very relevant in the context of products that a company ships and supports. I also don't understand your point about "Crashing UNIX systems on a routine basis", since the X11 server from Apple runs as a user process. It possible for ANY UNIX X server to crash, but a user process that crashes won't kill the UNIX kernel. > >-- >========================================================================== >Douglas J. DeAngelis Bull Worldwide Information Systems >deangeli@granite.cr.bull.com 300 Concord Road MA30-852A >(508) 671-2552 Billerica, MA 01821 Mike Chow mgchow@apple.com