Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!jrg
From: jrg@Apple.COM (John R. Galloway)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: ABI (or whatever the (proposed?) binary executable standard is
Summary: True X applications to finally come down to system calls, but
	 different ports use different LOCAL communication methods.
Keywords: ABi X
Message-ID: <27430@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 89 22:45:22 GMT
References: <27385@apple.Apple.COM> <1909@oakhill.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 26

In article <1909@oakhill.UUCP>, edw@oakhill.UUCP (Ed Wiencek) writes:
>  > Clearly I will want to run X on my Froboz architecture, but all
>  > those who build their systems on the Froboz cpu will certainly not
>  > have identically compatible X libraries and toolkits which would seem to
>  > remove the possibility of taking a binary X program in the Froboz abi format
>  > and having a chance of running it on any Froboz workstation?  right?
> 
> Wrong. The Motorola BCS--Binary Compatability Standard--doesn't care what high 
> level libraries you include or don't include. IT DOES CARE WHAT THE OS INTERFACE
> LOOKS LIKE. The BCS describes what the unix system call interface looks like. So
> Toolkits are built on top of the X library and both of these can be built on
> top of Unix library subroutines but eventually all of these are built on 
> top of Unix system calls. So long as you have X running on your BCS 
> compliant system your BCS based executable X application can be picked up, 

Well maybe.  The problem here is that there is no standard for local X
communication.  There is the X protocol standard but at a level below this
I have seen several very different ways of talking to your local server (i.e.
shared memory, streams, socket libraries that use streams, socket libraries
that use a pseudo tty driver, etc.).  Which one was a BCS compliant X app
built for?  Which one does the local server accept?  This is likely less of a
problme on BSD since there eveyone uses real sockets (or do they?).
apple!jrg	John R. Galloway, Jr.       contract programmer, San Jose, Ca

These are my views, NOT Apple's, I am a GUEST here, not an employee!!