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From: koreth@panarthea.EBay.Sun.COM (Steven Grimm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: X (was Re:  Gemini on old STs)
Message-ID: <1364@male.EBay.Sun.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 90 20:57:45 GMT
References: <9003191155.AA17336@freya.math.dmswwu> <1990Mar20.233950.3630@pmsmam.uucp>
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In article <1990Mar20.233950.3630@pmsmam.uucp> wwm@pmsmam.UUCP (Bill Meahan) writes:
>BTW, I REALLY LIKE the idea of merging something like Gemini with RTX or
>some similar multi-tasking system.  Sigh, just think if we could have
>X11R4 ...

Well, to run an X server (which, in X parlance, is the program that accepts
commands for drawing windows and putting stuff in them, but doesn't actually
determine what goes into them,) all you have to do is implement TCP/IP on
the ST.  That's already been done, in the KA9Q package.  Then find a copy
of the X protocol document and have at it.  I'm pretty sure that a reasonable
server implementation could be done on the ST.

The problem, though, is that you'd need a much faster network connection
than the serial port's 19.2Kbaud.  X is not really concerned with conserving
network bandwidth, so your X clients would display very slowly on the ST.
If you have an Ethernet box hooked up to your DMA port, you'd probably be
okay.

To run X clients (xtank, xterm, xsol, etc.) on the ST, you would of course
need a multitasking system.  Not only that, but it'd have to be pretty
close to UNIX-compatible, or you'd spend the rest of your life porting
all the libraries and so forth.  The obvious candidate is Minix.  I'm not
convinced that 4 megabytes is enough memory for all this, though -- X
is not small.

---
"                                                  !" - Marcel Marceau
Steven Grimm		Moderator, comp.{sources,binaries}.atari.st
koreth@ebay.sun.com	...!sun!ebay!koreth