X Windows and UNIX 386 compatibility
Piercarlo Grandi
pcg at aber-cs.UUCP
Thu Apr 12 08:20:54 AEST 1990
In article <263 at samna.UUCP> jeff at samna.UUCP (Jeff Barber) writes:
I agree that *if* Xlib is a shared library this is not a problem.
However, the version of X I'm using now (X11R3 on Interactive's
S5R3) does *not* use a shared library implementation (though perhaps
I missed some installation instructions for this option hidden in
a manual somewhere?).
This is a fair statement of the problem now.
So, the first question is: Does anyone know if there is a problem?
That is, can someone (perhaps from Interactive, SCO, Dell, Everex, etc.)
state whether the current UNIX 386 vendors use the same or different IPC
mechanisms for the Xlib-X-server connection?
No luck. This was discussed here following a similar query by Rick
Richardson, which also would like to have shrink wrap X applications, and
the answer is "under SVR3 it is impossible". This without workarounds.
You can always delegate all the interactions with the X server to a small
separate process, and you communicate with it in a standard way. You provide
your customers with an X server interface module for each SVR3 style.
Naturally this setup implies additional overheads, and is equivalent in
favour to having several different shared libraries. Such a solution may
actually be desirable for other reasons, if you can live with the overheads.
The next question is: Will this be addressed for S5R4? Either by using
a shared-library implementation of Xlib or by establishing a "standard"
IPC mechanism for X-windows?
Somebody from AT&T said "both". AT&T delivers a reference implementation of
X11/Openlook with the SVR4 sources; probably most AT&T OEMs will use it;
those that will not, and choose an IPC method different from AT&T's, will
(hopefully!) use a shared library.
--
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk at nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg at cs.aber.ac.uk
--
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk at nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg at cs.aber.ac.uk
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