x-window on pc

[jim frost]

simnet at ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark R Poulson) writes:
>I'm looking for ways to develop X-Windows application software and run it on 
>an IBM PC or compatible (possibly under the Xenix OS).  My final product 
>should also need to be portable e.g. to a SUN.  Any idea or comment will be
>greatly appreciated.

Well-written X applications are highly portable, so that shouldn't be
a major problem.  If you make use of UNIX-flavor-dependent functions,
such as tty control, it's a little harder.  This kind of thing is
generally unnecessary under X.

If you want to do this, I recommend using Interactive Systems Corp's
386/ix instead of Xenix.  They have the best 386 X windows I've ever
seen, period.  ESIX's X had poor performance relative to Interactive
even though they were running on exactly the same hardware.  Xenix,
last I heard, was still R2.  Xenix also uses the flaky Microsoft
compiler.  Pcc isn't great but it's fairly reliable.

If you want to write X applications on a 8086 or 80286 machine, good
luck.  There are fairly useful servers that run on those machines but
no good systems to run servers and clients.

jim frost
software tool & die     "The World" Public Access Unix for the '90s
madd at std.com            +1 617-739-WRLD  24hrs {3,12,24}00bps