Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!hplabs!hpfcso!hppad!lapp
From: lapp@hppad.HP.COM (David Lapp)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os9
Subject: Re: Windows for UNIX... on a CoCo!
Message-ID: <5710001@hppad.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 90 13:41:02 GMT
References: <1990Apr10.003925.10348@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: HP Panacom Automation Div Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 42

> Then I realised that all I wanted was the multiple windows.  So I started to

So what you are looking for is a means of having multiple sessions
going with a Unix system over a serial line correct?

> look at how X-windows does it.  Have you noticed that each window gets its
> own tty?

Well not quite. I believe that only each Xterm (or whatever terminal emulator
you are using) gets its own pty. Other processes (such as Xclock) don't
need a pty. 

>  So I started hunting through the manuals online, and a bit of source.  then
> I realised that the thing that gets things done is the window manager,
> uwm, gwm, twm, or whichever.  The X system really is not used much.  that's
> what xterm is for: to run things(jove, cc, ..anything..!) that weren't 
> meant for X, in an X-window.

Depends on what you mean by 'getting things done'. The window manager does
certainly do some things but... it may not be as omnipotent as you might
think :-). Keep in mind that you can run xterm (or any other X client)
without benefit of any window manager. (You just have to do it from
some other tty! (As some others have pointed out!!))

Xterm does provide the means of running X 'dumb' programs on an X server.
Thats why it uses pty's. That fools those X 'dumb' applications into 
believing that they are talking to a serial port.
Telnet does the same thing.
 
> is that window managers DON't CARE about processes:  they just poll the
> tty associated with them!!!

No window managers don't poll tty's. The application (ie. the shell
in an interactive session) talks to the slave side of the pty.
Xterm sits on the master side of the pty and talks to  the X server.
Anything that the window manager finds out about the other clients 
comes from the X server.

Hope that this helps

Dave Lapp
Standard Disclaimer etc...