Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!ocpt!tsdiag!hico2!sonyd1.Broadcast.Sony.COM!blilly.UUCP!bruce From: bruce@balilly (Bruce Lilly) Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1 Subject: Re: Two questions about the 3b1 Message-ID: <1991May29.224021.27786@blilly.UUCP> Date: 29 May 91 22:40:21 GMT References: <10132@idunno.Princeton.EDU> Sender: usenet@blilly.UUCP (News Administrator) Distribution: na Organization: Bruce Lilly, Flushing, NY Lines: 21 Nntp-Posting-Host: balilly In article <10132@idunno.Princeton.EDU> yong@pupthy.princeton.edu (Young Rene) writes: >Just curious: Is there going to be a X-window server program on > Unix-PC? mgr is nice, but very few useful programs exists. Probably not. Not because it's difficult (first step would be a driver that handles the keyboard and display) or because of memory or spped problems, but because it's not worth the effort. Prices of computer hardware are declining -- it's possible to get a system running X with a monochrome gray-scale display for a few thousand dollars. It would probably take quite a few man-weeks of time to port X to the 3b1, which has a small (720x ~300) 1-bit deep (no "gray"-scale) green display. Unless your time is nearly worthless, that's more expensive than buying an X terminal or small system. > Is VIDPAL hardware patch helpful for porting X-Window? Nope. It does nothing to address size or depth or pixel aspect ratio of the display, which are the biggest limitations. -- Bruce Lilly blilly!balilly!bruce@sonyd1.Broadcast.Sony.COM