Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!dont-send-mail-to-path-lines From: CS727713%HKPCC.HKP.HK@mitvma.mit.EDU ("Stephen Wong ", Hong Kong Poly. - Computing Dept.) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: PC X Windows Message-ID: Date: 18 Mar 91 21:37:00 GMT Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background) Organization: The Internet Lines: 43 >In article <9103112137.AB17929@expo.lcs.mit.edu> HAYS%POGUN@dupont.COM ("Randy > L. Hays, Ponca ATD, ETN 442-5073") writes: >>Has anyone ported the X window system to the PC? Can a PC application be >>developed that uses X as its display facility? I haven't seen one around and >>was wondering if one exists. > >None exist for MS-DOS, and none will. X Windows depends heavily on the >ability to multi-task, and MS-DOS doesn't. > That's not correct. MSDOS is used by a lot of people using PC, but it is not the only OS anyway. There are a few Unix ported to run on PC (mostly for i386), such as SCO Unix, Interactive (ISC) Unix, ESIX, etc. All the above supports X windows system on PC. If you have one of the above operating system, you can port X application easily. Of course, then you are running these applications on Unix, but not under MSDOS! >I haven't read enough about Desqview/X to say whether it uses the Xlib >programming model for applications it's running, but they say it uses >the X protocol for it's display rendering and therefore "acts a a bridge >between Unix and PCs" (paraphrased from their ads; means squat to me). >But again, that's not DOS. > Desqview/X claims to support Xlib, and a lot of things, you can refer to Desqview/X's ads, a very good booklet was included in the PC Special Byte Magazine last year. But anyway, Desqview/X is still not there, let's see how good it will be! Desqview/X is running under MSDOS, as they claim in their ads. Moreover, in the booklet, Quarterdeck (the developer of Desqview/X) even claims MSDOS programs (assume text mode) can run in X windows, no matter a local machine or a remote machine! >What you could do if you're really looking for application source >portability between PCs and Unix/X is to use an interface lib like XVT. >Then it's really MS Windows on the PC, but that's not so bad. I can't see any XVT implementation for MSDOS, but by using a toolkit (such as XVT, Motif, etc.), it will not be too hard to port applications to different GUI. Regards, Stephen Wong. (cs727713@hkpcc.hkp.hk)