Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!timbuk!cs.umn.edu!uc!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@next-5.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: X11 for the NeXTstation Message-ID: Date: 10 Jan 91 01:31:08 GMT References: <34009@athertn.Atherton.COM> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 48 Nntp-Posting-Host: next-5.gac.edu In-reply-to: dlw@Atherton.COM's message of 9 Jan 91 20:54:22 GMTLines: 48 In article <34009@athertn.Atherton.COM> dlw@Atherton.COM (David Williams) writes: But, getting back to the real question at hand....What has been changed in 2.0 that breaks XNeXT? I guess XNeXT used some nasty low-level bitmap functions. They weren't so concerned with doing it "right" as just getting it done ("they" is MIT). It seems the functions moved out from under XNeXT. How hard would it be to fix it, given the availability of source to it? Source is not availiable because the functions in question were/are proprietary, and NeXT wasn't/isn't keen on publishing them to the world, for many and varied reasons. And they are right, as far as that goes. Is it something that would make one conside just starting over with an R4 implementation? McGill already has. I'm building their server as we speak. I've plans to start with their server and get it running under 2.0, since the author hasn't the time to finish this up (he's also a native X programmer rather than a native NextStep programmer, so is handicapped when working on NeXTs). I can't give any guarentees about anything - I really don't "know" X at all, and if the problems are deeper than the NeXT side, I'm dead in the water. But, I'll try . . . From one standpoint it would be *GREAT* if NeXT/Adobe made extensions to Display Postscript/NextStep to allow X to operate on NeXT platforms...as Sun has done with regard to SunTools/X with the OpenWindows 2.0 server. I very much doubt it. A NextStation running X windows doesn't have much to its advantage over an Apollo running X, or an Amiga running X. NeXT decided to take NextStep and run with it. NeXT has been rather quiet on the internet of late, one would hope that in any case they have been following discussions like this. Hmm, I've not noticed extra quietness. The most frustrating thing about NeXT is their quietness, but I don't think they've been any quieter of late. Guess I can't blame them there, either . . . I'm sure they are busy on interim updates to 2.0, and 3.0 . . . -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Tried anarchy, once. Found it had too many constraints . . ." "Buy `Sweat 'n wit '2 Live Crew'`, a new weight loss program by Richard Simmons . . ."