pushp@nic.cerf.net (Pushpendra Mohta) (07/17/90)
Hi
I am interested in pursuing the performance of X windows with
repect to the communication overhead and local/remote processing
split.
1. Where is the protocol definition documented ?
2. Have any studies been conducted on the topic posed above or
similar topics ?
3. Do different vendor realizations differ in a non-trivial manner
with respect to the communication/processing split posed above ?
Do different releases ( i.e R3/R4) differ in this matter ?
4. Have any studies been conducted on the performance
of X or other windowing systems on wide area networks like
the Internet ?
(I realize that this is a very vague question ,
I have not defined performance here, but I am looking
for *ANY* studies )
5. Is this a valid performance question ? What are other performance
parameters of interest to the community ? ( Read to mean - Am I
asking stupid questions ? :-) )
6. If this is not the appropriate forum for asking these questions,
what is ?
Email replies will be appreciated. Enough interest will warrant
posting a summary.
Thank You
--pushpendra
CERFNet/SDSC/UCSD
mouse@SHAMASH.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (der Mouse) (07/18/90)
> I am interested in pursuing the performance of X windows with repect > to the communication overhead and local/remote processing split. Assuming you mean the X Window System[%], > 1. Where is the protocol definition documented ? See the mit/doc/Protocol/ directory in the R4 distribution. > 3. Do different vendor realizations differ in a non-trivial manner > with respect to the communication/processing split posed above ? > Do different releases ( i.e R3/R4) differ in this matter ? In both cases: no. Why? Because they interoperate, which means that they must speak the same protocol, implying that the same things must be done on both sides of the wire. (There are some extensions, like the various PostScript implementations, that allow this split to be changed, but I'm talking about just core X here.) > 4. Have any studies been conducted on the performance of X or other > windowing systems on wide area networks like the Internet ? Not that I know of, but I've run X clients across the net often enough to have some idea how it affects them. But I have nothing formalized. > Email replies will be appreciated. But you don't say where to send them. I've made a guess from the headers, but don't feel confident it'll get to you. der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
chan@hpfcmgw.HP.COM (Chan Benson) (07/19/90)
>> 3. Do different vendor realizations differ in a non-trivial manner >> with respect to the communication/processing split posed above ? >> Do different releases ( i.e R3/R4) differ in this matter ? > >In both cases: no. Why? Because they interoperate, which means that >they must speak the same protocol, implying that the same things must >be done on both sides of the wire. (There are some extensions, like >the various PostScript implementations, that allow this split to be >changed, but I'm talking about just core X here.) Well, there is the possibility that someone could use a different local IPC medium (such as shared memory) that would perturb performance characterization. I don't know if any such implementations exist, but I do know they have been discussed. -- Chan