bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) (03/07/88)
In article <12423@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> mfi@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Mark Interrante) writes: >A question on the applicability of network window systems to do work >from home. More specifically, how dense is the _typical_ >communications between the host server? GraphOn makes hi-perf graphics terminals with mice and local RasterOp intelligence, and distributes hacks to Xlib to create a server that will run on any BSD machine and spit GraphOn's protocol over a serial port to their terminal. This means that I could have, say, a GO terminal talking over a pair of TrailBlazers doing LZ compression to a Pyramid on campus. X applications would run on the Pyramid or anywhere else, just as before; it's just that the server would be running on the Pyramid, too, rather than on the Sun on my desk. I've wondered about how difficult it would be to do the same thing with NeWS as with X on the GraphOn terminals. You wouldn't have the compactness of expression in PostScript over the slowest link (from the server to its graphics engine), though clients would still talk PS to the server. One normally thinks of the server-graphics engine link as being very fast (DMA to a frame buffer) and the client-server link as potentially much slower (serial line or network IPC speed); perhaps turning around those constraints would cause re-thinking of the way we view clients and servers. Has anybody tried any of this stuff? The PO for our NeWS 1.1 sources hasn't gone out yet, and I can't convince "them" to get me a GO terminal just to play with (yet :-). Or is there a better scheme? -=- Bob Sutterfield, Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277 bob@cis.ohio-state.edu or ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!bob
paul@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Paul W. Placeway) (03/07/88)
In article <7797@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> bob (Bob Sutterfield) writes:
< ... Or is there a better scheme?
I think that a better scheme would involve using a micro with decent
graphics as the home side (read Macintosh (or Amiga, PC-with-wheels,
etc. if you must)). Besides, when you wern't using it to do work over
the phone, it would still be usefull.
-- Paul
--
Everything is relative...mfi@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Mark Interrante) (03/07/88)
Having a "terminal" with some processng capabilities was the intention of
my posting. Since I can get such processing power for under 2K (MAC, AMIGA,
CLONE).
Mark Interrante CIS Department
University of Florida
Internet: mfi@beach.cis.ufl.edu Gainesville, FL 32611
(904) 335-8051