Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!iconsys!caeco!i-core!geo-works!bryan
From: bryan@geo-works.UUCP (Bryan Ford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Request for testers for Color X11 for Amiga
Message-ID: <0945.AA0945@geo-works>
Date: 17 Jun 89 12:33:39 GMT
References: <788@boing.UUCP> <566@bnr-fos.UUCP> <1148@jimi.cs.unlv.edu> <795@boing.UUCP>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga
Lines: 37

In article <795@boing.UUCP>, dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes:
>In article <1148@jimi.cs.unlv.edu> ray@jimi.cs.unlv.edu (Ray Tripamer) writes:
>> This will not be
>>the case for a lot of Amiga users.  I don't think it is the intention of
>>Mr. Luck to have X on the Amiga replace the Workbench, but rather to supply
>>an well-known, useful product for those people who use Amigas on a network.
>
>The X Window System is also a standard execution and programming
>environment. I can't count how many programs are currently being written
>nor how many programmers or quantity of R&D being spent on developing
>X programs. With X11 on the Amiga these programs will be much easier
>to port to the Amiga since the majority of the work is graphics and we
>will have the exact same libraries and toolkits available on the Amiga
>that Sun/VAX/etc. programmers will be using.

Quite true.  However, at 400 bucks a copy, don't expect it to become the
standard window environment for the Amiga.  Don't get me wrong, I know it's
a very good price for 'big wigs' who want to connect an Amiga to everything
else.  But not very many 'normal' people are going to pay that much just
for a standard window environment, and if nobody has it, not many
programmers are going to program for it.

What you will need to do is release a simple, 'bones' library, which just
acts as a local interface to Intuition.  Only include the functions that
most X-Windows programs use.  Ideally this would be public domain (if you
want to make it a standard), but since I'm not very familiar with X-Windows
and I don't know what this would take, I won't make a big stink out of it.

Another option might be to create a linkable library that developers can
link into programs that use X-Windows.  This library would be very much
like the one described above, but it would be contained inside each
X-Windows program, as an interface to Intuition.  That way you could sell
it for a lot more (since it's being used directly only by developers).
Unfortunately, these programs might have a hard time running under your
'regular', networked X-Windows program.  Again I don't know how feasible
this would be, but it's an idea to think about.

				Bryan