rmfowler@texrex.uucp (Rex Fowler) (06/20/91)
I have purchased a vidpal but have yet to install it. I'd like to know a little more about what I gain/lose before I make a (permanent?) change. How similar is MGR to X? What can MGR do? Can I copy text from window-to- window? Can I pop windows open "at will"? Can I change the geometry of a window so that a window that is only 6" x 6" still has 24 rows x 80 columns? Are there fonts to support this sort of thing? Is installing the vidpal irreversible? I've heard a lot of positive comments over the past few months but only things like "you'll like it", "I like it", "It's a nice environment". I'd like to know some more detail, especially from those of you who are familiar with X. Thanks -- Rex Fowler <rmfowler@texrex.cirr.com> UUCP: egsner!texrex!rmfowler
daveb@ingres.com (Dave Brower, UNIX Group, [415] 748-3418) (06/23/91)
"You sure ask a lot of questions" - Roseanne Rosannadanna In <1991Jun20.034506.15523@texrex.uucp> Rex Fowler writes: > >How similar is MGR to X? Like X, it's a user process running the display rather than the original 7300 kernel window driver. Unlike X, the terminal emulation is built into the server rather than being an application. All display operations are piggy backed into terminal command sequences. A compilcation to this is that the terminal is notihing at all like a vt100, so if you need a good vt100 you'll have trouble. The "vtem" program from the comp.sources.something archives is a help, but not a complete solution as it doesn't handle function keys or the alternate character sets well. >What can MGR do? Beyond the 7300 window system, it really lets you have multiple readable windows, with cut and paste. There are some demo applications, including a clock, that are more X-like. There aren't many 3rd party MGR applications floating around. You lose the print-screen functions that were built into the 7300. (Which was sort of a shame, becuase I'd just figured out how to use them when I switched to mgr :-() >Can I copy text from window-to-window? Yes, and this is worth the price of admission >Can I pop windows open "at will"? Yes. >Can I change the geometry >of a window so that a window that is only 6" x 6" still has 24 rows x 80 >columns? Yes. >Are there fonts to support this sort of thing? Yes. >Is installing the vidpal irreversible? No, you only need to unplug the daughter board, extract your 68010, and put it back into the original socket. Here's a question you didn't ask: > Is installing mgr easy? If you are an experienced system administrator, or very ambitious and patient, you can install it. If you don't know how and why to, for instance, boot single user from a floppy and poke around your hard disk unmounted, then it may not be ready for Booting single user isn't necessary, but it's an example of the sort of thing that someone who can readily install mgr would also be able to do easily. hope this helps, -dB -- "If it were easy to understand, we wouldn't call it 'code'" David Brower: {amdahl, cpsc6a, mtxinu, sun}!rtech!daveb daveb@ingres.com