johndg@wglen.UUCP (John de Grosbois) (12/15/89)
Does anyone out there have experience porting X11-R3 and X11-R4 servers? We are considering the porting and installation of an X-11 server to run with our proprietary real-time operating system on sun3 and sun4 hardware. For planning purposes, we are trying to get a feel for the scope of the task. Thus we have the following questions: 1. How much of the sample server source code involves the following: i). hardware/display dependencies ii). operating system dependencies iii). communications (ie. transport layer interface) dependencies. Are there substantial differences between R3 and R4 in these areas? What are the major tasks/problems involved in porting each of these interfaces? 2. What are the key advantages to waiting for the release of the R4 sample server and porting that, and what will the R4 server have over the R3 server? 3. Roughly (ie. estimate in man-months) how big a task is EACH phase of a server port to a non-standard operating system (assume an experienced programmer, but new to X-windows), and given the following phases: -initial orientation phase with X-server and X11. -design and implementation phase. -test and debug phase. What are the big variables in your estimate? 4. Will client applications developed for R3 be fully compatible (ie run without changes) on an R4 server implementation? If not, what changes are required? 5. Also, We have been made aware that there are at least three documents available to aid in porting a server. If anyone knows where to obtain these (or any other appropriate material) we would love to hear from you. These are: 1. Definition of the Porting Layer for the X V11 Sample Server, 2. Strategies for Porting the X V11 Sample Server, and 3. Godzilla's Guide to Porting the X V11 Sample Server. Any assistance will be immensely appreciated. Thanks, John. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | John de Grosbois, johndg@wglen.uucp | | Project Leader ...!alberta!calgary!wglen!johndg | | Willowglen Systems Ltd. | | #4 Manning Close N.E. Phone: (403)-272-1800 | | Calgary Alberta Fax: (403)-272-2114 | | | ------------------Willowglen =SCADA= -----------------------------------
rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (12/15/89)
1. How much of the sample server source code involves the following:
Use the Source, Luke. Seriously, depending on other people's answers
probably won't get you that far. The best way to understand the server
and it's relationship to your hardware and OS is to dive in, and actually
look at the code.
Are there substantial differences between R3 and R4 in these areas?
Yes.
2. What are the key advantages to waiting for the release of the R4 sample
server and porting that, and what will the R4 server have over the
R3 server?
LOTS. Performance and robustness, to name two. But, you'll have to wait
for R4 to actually come out to get the details from us. There will be a
talk at the X Conference convering some of this.
4. Will client applications developed for R3 be fully compatible (ie run
without changes) on an R4 server implementation?
Correct applications won't need changes. But, there are fair number of buggy
applications out there (e.g. R3 xterm, passive grabs in the R3 Intrinsics,
I think R3 InterViews, the version of Frame that we've tried, Composer I think)
that will get protocol errors when run against a strict R4 server. A typical
bug is passing a do-not-propagate-mask with "extraneous" bits set. Our R4
server will have a "bug compatibility" mode to allow you to continue to run
buggy R3 clients.
5. Also, We have been made aware that there are at least three documents
available to aid in porting a server.
These documents are included in the MIT R3 distribution, in doc/Server/.