X terminals, gl terminals

[Rob Warnock]

In article <1991Jun5.141951.18181 at fccc.edu> stodola at orion.fccc.edu
(Robert K. Stodola) writes:
+---------------
| We do not intend to put a GL-terminal (diskless workstation or other construct
| which we are forever bound to purchase from SGI or SGI licensed source) on
| everybody's desk.  So far, it appears to me that SGI is bringing X into the
| SGI world, rather than moving SGI into the X world.  I'd be thrilled to hear
| arguments to the contrary.
+---------------

GL (and mixed-mode GL+X) apps will continue to use GL imaging, and thus will
have to display on GL-capable servers (running the dgld daemon). But other
programs, e.g. "wsh", are pure X apps in 4.0, and you can use them remotely
from non-SGI X servers. [I don't have a complete list of which is which.]

The "move to X" was never intended to abandon the Geometry Engine technology
or the GL protocol for speaking to it, any more than previous versions of
Irix did GL rendering "through" NeWS/4Sight [which they didn't]. X is as
pervasive in 4.0 as NeWS was previously, and perhaps even a bit more.

But the X protocol simply does not (yet) support the 3-d imaging operations
that make so many of the SGI apps what they are today. Until it (or some future
protocol standard) does, we'll probably continue to have a mixed GL & X world.


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, MS-1L/515		rpw3 at sgi.com		rpw3 at pei.com
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