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From: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: X Windows and UNIX 386 compatibility
Summary: SVR4 will save us -- until then, you don't have much luck.
Message-ID: <1722@aber-cs.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 90 22:20:54 GMT
Reply-To: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Organization: Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth
	(Disclaimer: my statements are purely personal)
Lines: 43

In article <263@samna.UUCP> jeff@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@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk
-- 
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi           | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk