jim@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Jim Fulton) (01/17/89)
I have a feeling that
the size of the contributed part of the X distribution for R4 is going to
shrink considerably.
I wish! However, I'm almost certain that it won't.
A lot of the software released with the R3 tape did not work with R3
due to changes from R2.
Specifically, a few incompatible changes where made to the Xt Intrinsics. Now
that those interfaces have been adopted by the Consortium they will remain
stable. Honest!
I suppose the only solution is to split the contrib and core releases
into two tapes and begin accepting the contributions some time after
the new release is widely available and ask that software be tested on
the new release already.
The latter release is called "comp.sources.x" and "ftp". :-) Seriously
though, Xt will remain compatible.
First, dealing with a second tape might be unmanageable
Might?
Staggered distributions seems to be the obvious solution, barring some
unforeseen objection.
Oh, I can see one.... Yo!
Keep making suggestions like that, Barry, and you'll be typing with the fishes
(which will still be 3000 miles away from the ocean at Usenix). :-)
If we are all going to start adding imakefiles to the system, can
we at least take a second or two to indicate where in the source
tree these new clients are to reside?
It shouldn't matter.
Somebody posts the source for, say, xpostit. Is that in contrib/clients?
contrib/demos? clients? Where?
I would say contrib/clients/. The demos subdirectory was generally meant for
things that just draw "pretty" pictures. Utilities get put into the clients
subdirectory.
Also, does anyone have a shell for running imake in a totally random
location (ie: one where the ../../../ stuff is meaningless?)
You can use util/scripts/ximake.sh if you have your source tree somewhere on
the machine (it needs the imake config files and the compiled libraries). R4
will install the right things to allow you to generate Makefiles without
having sources (or objects) around at all.
>As it stands I get this sinking feeling a few dozen of us have done
>the same porting jobs over and over again (would it really have been
>useful for me to post every place that Atoms.h->StringDefs.h*??)
Until the issue is resolved,
This particular issue was resolved in R2! The name is StringDefs.h.
Jim
p.s. For those attending the X Conference, here's a Boston weather update: the
January Arctic blasts came a few weeks early this year, so if we're lucky
things will be nice next week. In fact, it was a rather wonderful 51 degrees
on Sunday.
However, weather wimps should remember that around this time of year, "nice" in
New England is about 30 degrees with only light winds....
If you call right away, Lands' End or L. L. Bean might be able to deliver
appropriate attire by Saturday (you could it shipped to your hotel :-).
Actually, if you've never been to Bean's you might want to rent a car and go
up there while you're here. It's only 2 1/2 hours from Boston and they're
open 24 hours a day!