Which X11 for A/UX 1.1.1 or 2.0?

[John Coolidge]

fry at brauer.harvard.edu (DSF2) writes:
>1) If I had MacX for 1.1.1, would it run concurrently as a Mac 
>program?

No idea. Haven't seen MacX under 1.1.1 (I know that's not much help).
However, 1.1.1 only allows one Mac program at a time, so you're really
still only getting X with a Mac-ish window manager.

>2) Any ideas when MacX will really be available?

No idea (sorry again).

>3) Is there any reason to use the X11 "true Unix" version over MacX, 
>under either system?

So far, from my experience with MacX and 2.0 (both obviously still beta):
speed. MacX is quite slow compared to the "true Unix" version of X.
Probably some of this is debugging code, some of it is tuning, and some
is the extra work it's doing. Until the official release of both products,
I'm not sure this is answerable.

>4) Under either system, if a program asks for a window larger than my 
>screen (I'll be using a 13inch RGB), is the window made to fit, or do 
>I have to resize it myself?

Under "true Unix" X11, you have to resize it yourself. I'm not sure of how
MacX handles it right now, but to some extent it depends on what type of
MacX window you're opening. There's certainly potential there for an
intelligent resize.

>5) Lastly, just for the sake of comparison, how does using either X 
>product compare to using Sun's X11 windowing system that I'm now 
>using on a Sun3 in terms of speed?

X11R4 on Macs is pretty similar to X11R4 on Suns. The server keeps up on
both about the same. Of course, the I/O bandwidth of a typical Sun (3/60)
beats a Mac IIx (what we have) hands down, so the Sun "feels" faster. As
long as you don't hit the disks or network, though, they're as fast if not
faster (the IIx has a faster processor). The fx, with fast I/O, will smush
most of Sun's 3/x and many 4/x machines (but, then, you'd expect it to).
(And, speaking of the fx, what's the chance of a DMA ethernet card? In a
NFS environment, that's more important than DMA disks...).

All in all, I'd tend to recommend, as a holding action, getting the X11R4
release and building it with gcc. That doesn't cost you anything and gets
you a full "true Unix" X11 that runs on 1.1.1 (and 2.0, for that matter).
Then see how MacX looks when the official product comes out.

--John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John L. Coolidge     Internet:coolidge at cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP:uiucdcs!coolidge
Of course I don't speak for the U of I (or anyone else except myself)
Copyright 1990 John L. Coolidge. Copying allowed if (and only if) attributed.
You may redistribute this article if and only if your recipients may as well.