tierney@lbl-csam.arpa (Brian Tierney [SFSU Computer Science Dept]) (11/29/89)
Subject: X windows performance I have spent the last 1 1/2 days comparing different combinations of window systems and window managers, and I thought you may be interested in my conclusions. I tested Sun's and MIT's X11 with pswm, twm, and olwm, awm, and uwm. olwm is from Sun and has about the same user interface as pswm (ie. Openlook), but is written in C instead of postscript. I'm using a Sun 4-110, so results may vary on other machines, but I'd expect similar results on any Sun-4 based system. To test performance I used the 'Visualization Workbench' (VWB) program, the new image processing tool from Paragon Imaging Inc. I chose this program because it uses lots of windows with lots of text. The Results: Sun's X11 with pswm: This is the default Openwindows configuration. You can run sunview, xview, and News programs. Major negative point is that start-up time and creating new windows is quite slow. Sun's X11 with twm: much faster, but doesn't run programs written with the xview toolkit (xview programs require a ICCCM- compliant window manager, which twm isn't) Sun's X11 with olwm: even a little faster than twm, but a little buggy. Does run xview programs. BUT, none of these combinations will run the xvdisplay part of the VWB, I presume due to a bug in Sun's X11 (or maybe in the VWB). MIT's X11 with twm: xvdisplay works, but screen refresh is VERY slow, and therefore quite frustrating to use. MIT's X11 with olwm: doesn't work MIT'S X11 with pswm: not possible. Both with awm and uwm: I didn't spend a lot of time with these because I don't like the user interface of either nearly as much as twm or olwm. They both seem to be about the same speed as twm. uwm runs xview programs, awm does not. Conclusions: Sun's X11 is much faster ( on a Sun ) than MIT's, but if you want to run xvdisplay, you have no choice. Also, you can run sunview programs only with Sun's X11. It's harder to say which is best between twm and olwm. I prefer some of the features of olwm (such as push-pins and the ability to resize a window from any corner), but it is a bit flakey. The deciding factor for me is the ability to run xview programs, which twm doesn't have. However if you're not running or writting xview programs, you may want to use twm. Therefore I suggest that your default set-up be with Sun's X11 and either twm or olwm, but have your environment set up to also bring up MIT's X11 when necessary. Hope this helps. Feel free to foward this to anyone you want to. -Brian -- /---------------------------------------v-------------------------------------\ | Brian Tierney, Computer Graphics Lab | internet: tierney@george.lbl.gov | | Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories | or arpa: tierney@lbl-csam.arpa | \---------------------------------------^-------------------------------------/
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (11/30/89)
In article <4307@helios.ee.lbl.gov> tierney@lbl-csam.arpa (Brian Tierney [SFSU Computer Science Dept]) writes: >Subject: X windows performance > >MIT's X11 with olwm: doesn't work > I beg to differ, but on our Sun4/260 we are using X11R3, patches 1-9, and Purdue speedups; and we have successfully used olwm on our system. The only drawback is that it doesn't support multiple screens. Chewey, get us outta here! kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (818)354-8771 Kaleb Keithley