[comp.unix.aux] Macs for compfortable A/UX programming

nayeri@cs.umass.edu (Farshad Nayeri) (10/01/90)

We are thinking of updating our Macs in my office and I would like to hear
your comments about the following questions:

I think we are definitely going to try to get upgraded from IIx to IIfx, but
the following is some other related questions:

Has anyone used a 3 button mouse to use with MacX (and/or X11R4) under A/UX? How does it
work, where do I get it, etc. I know that Apple Thought Police doesn't like
3-buttons, but it is a total pain to run X Windows with one button.
Incidently, does MacX handle this (the one button mouse problem) any better
than previous versions of X11R4? 

I remember hearing that A/UX running MacOS does not support more than one
screen. Is this true? Also, can you run MacX (and/or X11R4) with more
than one screen? 

How much memory should we get for running A/UX and MacX and have the mac
comfortable enough for programming?

Any other suggestions for turning our macs into a A/UX development
environment?

Our current configuration is:
  Mac IIx with 4/8 Meg memory, Apple 13" (I think) color monitor, Ethernet
  cable, A/UX 1.1 (we are getting the upgrade for 2.0 soon), X11R4 (MIT
  version).

If someone has asked any of these questions recently, I would appreciate if
you could forward the answers to me as well. Thank you. --farshad
--
Farshad Nayeri                Object Oriented Systems Group
nayeri@cs.umass.edu           Dept. of Computer and Information Science
(413)545-0256                 University of Massachusetts at Amherst

alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (10/07/90)

In article <NAYERI.90Sep30204222@ibis.cs.umass.edu> nayeri@cs.umass.edu writes:
>Has anyone used a 3 button mouse to use with MacX (and/or X11R4) under A/UX? How does it
>work, where do I get it, etc. I know that Apple Thought Police doesn't like
>3-buttons, but it is a total pain to run X Windows with one button.

Apple has actually been pushing this:
SuperMouse/GMPU
Advanced Gravis
1033 Antrim Ave.
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5J 4M5
(604) 434-7274

I haven't used it myself.

>I remember hearing that A/UX running MacOS does not support more than one
>screen. Is this true? Also, can you run MacX (and/or X11R4) with more
>than one screen? 

Currently, this is true. MacX doesn't change things, but I understand that
X11R4 will support multiple monitors.

>How much memory should we get for running A/UX and MacX and have the mac
>comfortable enough for programming?

8MB is drastically more useful than 4MB. Given the low cost of Mac memory,
though, why not go for 20MB? 16MB of RAM, even for the IIfx, will set you
back less than $900.

>Any other suggestions for turning our macs into a A/UX development
>environment?

Well, having two disks instead of one always helps. If you're going to
get a disk, get a 5.25" one. They have much better transfer rates than
3.5" disks (except for the new 3.5" Wrens and the large (300-400MB)
Quantums, neither of which are widely available yet).

>Our current configuration is:
>  Mac IIx with 4/8 Meg memory, Apple 13" (I think) color monitor, Ethernet
>  cable, A/UX 1.1 (we are getting the upgrade for 2.0 soon), X11R4 (MIT
>  version).

Programming? Get yourself a larger, monochrome screen! I can't think of
anything that could make a bigger difference.

---
Alexis Rosen
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis