Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!exodus!atticus
From: gds@atticus (Greg Schechter)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: PEX using PHIGS (was Re: PEX, PHIGS, DEC5000?)
Message-ID: <10030@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 91 02:29:10 GMT
References: <1991Mar15.190013.7415@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Mar17.235026.4718@dsd.es.com>
Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: gds@atticus (Greg Schechter)
Organization: Sun Microsystems - Graphics Technology Group - Mountain View, CA
Lines: 36
In-reply-to: rthomson@mesa.dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson)

In article <1991Mar17.235026.4718@dsd.es.com>, rthomson@mesa (Rich Thomson) writes:
>PEX is PHIGS/PHIGS-PLUS Extensions to X, so if they are using PEX they
>are using PHIGS (at least for output -- PEX doesn't attempt to cover
>PHIGS style input on the server side; input happens through a beast
>called the "PHIGS Monitor" which runs as a separate process that
>interacts with a PHIGS client program).
>
>So, if you are using PEX you are using PHIGS.
>

Actually, this is not true.  PEX is simply a protocol, just like X.
However, it is an extension to the core X protocol.  It simply relates
specific byte encodings to specific server actions on the part of the
PEX extended server.  It just so happens that PEX was designed
specifically to support the functionality that PHIGS and PHIGS PLUS
offer, but it is not an Application Programming Interface.

Saying PEX uses PHIGS is like saying X uses XView or the Athena
Widgets.

On the other hand, distributed implementations of PHIGS may use PEX to
achieve their distributivity.  This is particularly true if a PHIGS
implementation wants to be able to communicate with a variety of
vendors' window servers.  For example, a PHIGS implementation running
on a Sun may open PHIGS workstations on the local Sun, a remote Sun
running a PEX server, and a remote 3rd party machine running a PEX
server.

-- Greg

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= Greg Schechter                                  Graphics Technology Group =
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