bh01@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (Russell Nelson) (07/21/87)
Is one of the design goals of V11 to run on a machine with 16 bit integers? I sure hope so, because X would be perfect here at Clarkson where our School of Engineering is putting 75 286 boxes on a network with a wide variety of machines talking TCP/IP. And this is just a start. Microsoft is only promising that they're thinking about starting to write network transparent graphics. X is here, but not if it won't run on our machines. As I see it, if X can't be ported to a 16 bitter, we either go without X, or wait until the 286-pin compatible 386 comes out. -russ
dleigh@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Darren Leigh) (07/21/87)
In article <8707210144.AA13974@clutx.clarkson.edu>, bh01@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (Russell Nelson) writes: > Is one of the design goals of V11 to run on a machine with 16 bit integers? > I sure hope so, because X would be perfect here at Clarkson where our School > of Engineering is putting 75 286 boxes on a network with a wide variety of > machines talking TCP/IP. And this is just a start. > > Microsoft is only promising that they're thinking about starting to write > network transparent graphics. X is here, but not if it won't run on our > machines. As I see it, if X can't be ported to a 16 bitter, we either go > without X, or wait until the 286-pin compatible 386 comes out. > -russ X is not a piece of software, but a protocol. There is nothing inherent in the X protocol that forbids using it on 16 bit machines. The server software that gets distributed may have some probems, but you could either modify this yourself or re-write it using the original as a model. The problems you might have with X on a 286 machine are lack of memory and lack of multi-tasking (needed unless you just want a dumb X terminal). You might also want to get graphics screens with a decent resolution; EGA or less will be rather cramped and you won't be able to play xtrek. Darren Leigh dleigh@hplabs.hp.com