Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!ncar!gatech!ncsuvx!cscosl!tw
From: tw@cscosl.ncsu.edu (Thomas Wolf)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: IDRIS(R), STX-Windows(TM), for the ST/MEGA
Keywords: IDRIS, X-Windows, ATARI ST/MEGA
Message-ID: <1656@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 88 17:22:03 GMT
References: <1292@mcgp1.UUCP>
Sender: nntp@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: tw@cscosl.UUCP (Thomas Wolf)
Organization: Operating Systems Lab, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC
Lines: 42

In article <1292@mcgp1.UUCP> fst@mcgp1.UUCP (Skip Tavakkolian) writes:
>For Your Information:
>The following are the new IDRIS(R) (release 3.14) and STX-Windows(TM) prices:
>
>IDRIS TARGET SYSTEM (TS) ........................................ $149.95 (US)
>Features a complete executive and all utilities except program development
>utilities. This system includes socket and pty drivers.
>
>STX-WINDOWS, When purchased with IDRIS TS or PS ................. $49.95  (US)
[rest of article deleted]

This question might be a naive one (since I don't know anything about Idris):
	Could you use MW C to develop software under Idris?
        (I guess I'm trying to decide whether a poor student
         such as I could get away with not purchasing the 
         Idris PS system - if I were to purchase it at all.)

The prices  quoted in the article seem to be extremely reasonable.  However,
I wonder how worthwhile it would be to develop software for Idris.  Although
it appears to be a fairly extensive Unix-like environment (correct?), I don't
see a market (at least an ST/Mega market) for it.  I suppose the target
market wasn't supposed to be the ST/Mega but any Unix-supporting environment?
Can you port source-level code written under Idris to other Unix machines
without modifications?

One last question:  What system configuration does one need to have to use
Idris as a reasonable fast tool?  I have a 20meg hd, but from what I hear
about other systems supporting flavors of Unix, the environment takes up lots
of room.  This isn't really that an important a question, but I'm curious as
to Idris' size.

Thanks in advance for any information regarding these (maybe naive) queries.
I also would appreciate more articles summarizing Idris.  As you may have
noticed from the nature of my questions, I'm nearly completely ignorant as
to the nature of Idris, Atari's commitment to it, etc.  Also, if Idris was
summarized in a previous article in this news-group, I must have missed it;
could someone re-post it?

 
Tom Wolf
ARPA (I think): tw@cscosl.ncsu.edu
           or wolf@csclea.ncsu.edu