Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!srl.mew.mei.co.jp!moore
From: moore@srl.mew.mei.co.jp (W. Phillip Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: PEX: when and where...
Message-ID: <9009272219.AA05881@terra.srl.mew.mei.co.jp>
Date: 27 Sep 90 22:19:40 GMT
References: <9009271334.AA10232@expire.lcs.mit.edu>
Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root)
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   No, the mailing list x11-3d@expo.lcs.mit.edu has been, although it has
   essentially no traffic for quite a while.

Well, even so, I'd like to be added to the mailing list.  Will this message
suffice, or should I mail a direct request to x11-3d??  Also, are there
archives of past discussions (if they are worth having)??

   If you want to plan for PEX, then start writing/learning PHIGS, because
   that's the programming interface for PEX.  You'll have to consult your
   individual vendors to see if the provide any proprietary PHIGS interface
   in X today.

Great.  The tool I currently have (see comp.lsi yesterday) is
SunView/SunCore based, and since SunCore died, I will be writing code for
SunPHIGS pretty soon.  I have also heard that some X11 (but Sun only) PHIGS
implementations are already available.  I'll check that out.

   It will be available to the public sometime next year, and yes it will be
   free.  But I will warn you, a completely software implementation of a 3D
   pipeline is not particularly speedy.  The PEX sample implementation will be
   just that.  Individual vendors will be doing their own ports to their 3D
   graphics hardware, but whether any of that hardware-specific code will ever
   become generally available is anyone's guess.

But of course.  My code is not especially 3D intensive, so slow speed
wouldn't kill it.  I basically just need to do some simple plotting in 3D,
with Gauraud shading.  Anything else will be a bonus, so I'll live with
what I can get.  If fatster optimized server are for sale, no problem.  My
company is not poor :-) and I know where the PO forms are.

   Right now, I'd say it's safe to say that the sample implementation will
   run on any 8-bit color display that runs the MIT sample server.  Beyond
   that, I won't say.

Our system is all Sun3/4, so I will assume no problem.

   Now, I get the impression from your address that you are actually from
   an X Consortium member, in which case you may be able to get access to
   PEX pre-releases already.  I'll send you private mail about this.

Got it, and to answer the question, Matsushita Electric Works is very
closely related to Matsushita Electric Industries, but we are *not* a
subsidiary.  MEI only owns 30% of MEW, and our product lines don't really
overlap much.  Our network suvrives because of them, and I know a lot of
the MEI net guru's.  We cooperate quite a bit.  

If you have a contact address at MEI, that would really be great.  I am
sure I could get most of the information I need from them.

Thank you *very* much for the information.  BTW, I think you guys are doing
a fantastic job with X11, despite the bitchin' and maonin' I read in
comp.windows.x.  Keep up the great work.

A satisfied "customer",

W. Phillip Moore					   Phone: 06-908-1431
LSI Research Group					     FAX: 06-906-7251
Semiconductor Research Laboratory		  E-mail: moore@mew.mei.co.jp
       Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.	1048 Kadoma, Osaka 571, Japan