songer@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer) (04/06/91)
Hi,
I got my copy of co-Xist in the mail a couple of days ago.
It is really nice. It shores up quite a few public domain software
weaknesses in the Next. The implementation seems really clean.
Everthing I have tried to compile so far has compiled without
any problems at all.
The installation was as simple as double clicking the install
package and waiting a couple of minutes and then running the
co-Xist install program that came with the package. (I got it
on optical so did not have to do any disk switching.)
There is also a de-install script. For one reason or another
the package does not want to reinstall after it has been deinstalled.
(I deinstalled it and then had to go grab the tar file from the package
to get it back.) For the base X server and associated stuff about
30Meg of the hardrive was required.
The root X window is of a fixed size (but configurable on startup.)
The window manager that comes with the default package (ie, no motif)
is twm, but watch out, the sample .xinitrc starts Motif. The graphics
are suprisingly fast. I had heard nasty rumors that it was really
slow and painful, but it sped right along when I ran it. For
comparison purposes, it seemed much faster than a SUN3.
The NextStep portion of the server could stand a little work. The
icon when co-Xist is launched from the dock never de-highlights. The quit
function does not initiate a very clean shutdown. (The console gets
lots of nasty messages.)
As a passing comment, it is really nice having X on the Next. There
were alot of purist vs others debates several months ago about the need
for X on a Next. I find that having it is really nice. Sure, I'd
prefer a NextStep version of xxgdb, xmahjongg, xtrek, ... but am not willing
to do a port for every xsource I like. I'm SURE they would be better
in NeXTStep, but am also sure that they are available for X.
co-Xist is a wonderful package and quite easy to get up and
running. I'd strongly reccomend it to anyone looking for X11R4 on
the Next.
Anyway,
-Chris