Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!SMITHKLINE.COM!wood%phws00.dnet
From: wood%phws00.dnet@SMITHKLINE.COM (Bill Wood, SmithKline &French R&D 215-2705163)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Need comments on GraphOn OptimaX (or others)
Message-ID: <8906060448.AA00689@smithkline.com>
Date: 6 Jun 89 04:48:27 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 43

corbet@stout.ucar.edu writes about the Graphon OptimaX X terminal:

>It is not a workstation replacement.  There are times when you simply *know*
>that you are working over a serial line.  If you have any users who are
>fond of putting cute pictures into their root window, this terminal will 
>drive them nuts.  Any sort of raster data is very slow.

Some raster data is quite fast, depending on how well it can be compressed.
xphoon is reasonably fast, given the large areas of black in it.
Framemaker pages, which are image data, are surprisingly fast.
Complex images can take 30-60 seconds to draw.


>In summary, I think it can be a useful device for casual X users, who have
>not been spoiled by having a full workstation or network-based X terminal.
>Those who use it for text work, or for simple vector graphics, will be 
>happy.  I would certainly buy it before I got another dumb monochrome
>graphics terminal for one of my users.

At 19200 KB I am quite pleased with the terminal for general programming,
system maintenance, and day-to-day work.  It exhibits a snappy response
most of the time, except when it must download a new font, and it pauses
for a moment.

Text output in particular is very fast, faster than the Sun color server
distributed with X11r3.  From home, at 9600 baud over a Microcom AX/9624c
modem, it is not as snappy but very acceptable.  Both from home and at
work I have a terminal server between the host and the terminal, which
works fine.

Network traffic is reduced with the terminal due to a) its low speed (19200
baud is typical, which is aprox. 2000 bytes/sec of terminal server traffic)
and  b) the fact that the protocol between it and the server is 2-3 times more
efficient than the X protocol.

The OptimaX can also be used as a regular VT100 terminal with attached
printer port.  It is nice to have the option of running X or not.  The 
terminal will dump the X screen to a number of different types of
attached printers (Thinkjet/Quietjet, Laserjet+, QMS/Talaris, FX-80/FX-100,
FX-85/FX-185, Okidata 92/93, Okidata 192/193, Okidata 84, and SIXEL printers).

We are thinking at work that the GRAPHON may be the way to bring X to
everyone's desk, due to its low cost and serial interface.