Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!gauss.llnl.gov!casey
From: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  X terminals/ pc X terminals
Message-ID: <69417@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 26 Oct 90 19:38:02 GMT
References: <9010240817.AA15043@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU> <2259@lupine.NCD.COM>
Sender: usenet@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV
Reply-To: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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Nntp-Posting-Host: gauss.llnl.gov

| From: mikeh@bryant.NCD.COM (Mike Harrigan)
| 
| > I heard about an Xterminal by GraphOn corporation that employed a few
| > unique features.  The host creates a compressed output (proprietary
| > scheme) that allows an xwindow to operate (reasonably) over a serial
| > line.
| 
| Another way of getting X over serial lines is with NCD X terminals
| running XRemote. This is NCD's proprietary protocol that runs reasonably
| well at 9600 baud (V.32 modems) up to 38.4 Kbaud. Unlike other serial
| line approaches, NCD terminals have the X server local, so pixmaps can be
| stored locally and brought up fast. With backing store windows can pop
| fast, etc. XRemote is available for all various NCD models. For more
| information contact NCD.

  We just ran a head to head comparison of the NCD/XRemote against the
GraphOn.  The GraphOn outperformed the NCD on almost all operations by
very wide margins ranging from %200 to %1000.  The NCD/XRemote did
outperform the GraphOn on some stippled operations which seem to indicate
a failing in the GraphOn graphics protocol.  I'm waiting for copies of
the new software to reperform our tests.

  The GraphOn is currently the obvious choice for serial line X11
operation.  As I said before, since I have yet to play with GraphOn's
Ethernet implementation, I can't say anything about that.  My only
objections to going with the GraphOn are:

    1.	The protocol is proprietary.  There isn't a publically available
	sample server and client.

    2.	It would be trivial to implement the client side software on PCs
	and GraphOn still hasn't done this.  I'm waiting on buying a
	Macintosh on this issue.

    3.	They still haven't addressed the color issue.  This is especially
	important when the possibility of PC client software is
	considered.

Casey