Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU!STONE
From: STONE@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jeffrey Stone)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Server/Client Split?
Message-ID: <12383578580.12.STONE@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 88 14:28:49 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45


 
A few questions about the deployment of X-based applications in the
future:
 
   1. With workstations gaining computational power rapidly (e.g.
      through RISC developments), in the future will most use of X
      be in situations where the server and client both run on the
      same computer, generally a workstation?  I believe that is the
      case today.  Is it expected to change significantly in the next
      few years?
 
   2. Is there likely to be growing interest in low-priced X Servers
      (diskless PCs running an X server application) networked to
      powerful multi-user computers which perform computation for
      many users?  I have difficulty seeing this as a generally
      interesting configuration for technical applications except in
      those relatively few cases where supercomputer power is
      required.
 
   3. Does anyone see interest in more business-oriented applica-
      tions (e.g financial workstations) low-priced X terminals
      networked to multi-user client systems?
 
   4. In cases where a single computer serves as the client for a
      number of X terminals, will application developers want to add
      special features to their applications to optimize for the
      multi-user environment?  In the commercial world, we have
      examples of this in things like CICS which is, among other
      things, an efficient multi-terminal handler running in a multi-
      user operating system.  I know this is a long way from the X
      world, but are there things applications may want to do to
      take advantage of the multi-user environment?
 
   5. When a user runs an application where the client and the
      server share the same physical system (workstation), does the
      overhead of client-server communication add much computa-
      tional load compared against non-distributed architectures?  In
      other words, is X an appropriate architecture when user
      interface and computation are both run on a workstation?
 
I will appreciate your responses.

Jeffrey Stone
Menlo Park, CA
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