Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lhdsy1!yzarn
From: yzarn@lhdsy1.chevron.com (Philip Yzarn de Louraille)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Ultrix 4.2
Message-ID: <991@lhdsy1.chevron.com>
Date: 23 Jun 91 17:50:54 GMT
References: <1991Jun19.145218@wsl.dec.com> <987@lhdsy1.chevron.com> <1991Jun20.224006.25645@crl.dec.com>
Organization: Chevron Oil Field Research, La Habra, CA.
Lines: 33

In article <1991Jun20.224006.25645@crl.dec.com> jg@crl.dec.com (Jim Gettys) writes:
...deleted stuff...
>The general problem is VERY hard.  Think about the case of a one bit monochrome
>display, and a 32 bit double buffered 3D display with geometry pipe hardware.  
>After taking 4 tylenol, come back and ask again if you think you need to.
>
>Requiring this in the core protocol seems like asking for the almost impossible 
>(unless you posit that you don't support both screen types, which we couldn't).
>
>This is not to say one can't implement a server that would make several homogenous
>frame buffers look by one screen, or add an extension to allow windows to be moved
>between screens under appropriate circumstances.  But we haven't gotten around
>to doing so (at least yet).

Apple has... (well, I'm not sure about the 32 bit double buffered 3D
display with geometry pipe hardware, but because there are very hard
cases does not mean that simpler ones cannot be implemented, especially
if a vendor already has such software technology already out on the
market.)
I am disappointed on the X server specs, and I am also disappointed by
the speed (or lack of) it takes DEC to release the X11r4 servers. The
specs for release 5 will be out soon, I guess we will see DEC release
the X11r5 servers in 1993-4?
I also agree that some hardware situations might be *very hard* to code.
But is that a reason for releasing simple minded specs? I think not.
That it might take times to release servers that would do everything that
the specs require is understandable, but one can always release code
that does not do everything, as long as it is documented.
-- 
  Philip Yzarn de Louraille                 Internet: yzarn@chevron.com
  Research Support Division                 Unix & Open Systems
  Chevron Information & Technology Co.      Tel: (213) 694-9232
  P.O. Box 446, La Habra, CA 90633-0446     Fax: (213) 694-7709