Subject: Re: Using MicroImages X Server with x11r6 NT binaries
From: [email-masked] (Fabio Somenzi)

29 Mar 1997 19:23:42 -0800
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Thanks to the many who suggested several ways to determine the
dynamically assigned IP. Summarizing for the benefit of others who may
face the same problem:

1. From the Win95 side (which I assume to be the local side), one runs
winipcfg.

2. From the Unix (remote) side, one runs "who am i" or something
similar, and then extracts the name or address of the local system.

I adopted the second solution because my .cshrc can take care of it.
(As a matter of fact, I already had the necessary code in my .cshrc,
but it was only run when the terminal type was "xterm." I failed to
realize that dynamic IPs correpond to fixed, albeit fictitious, names
and didn't look into the matter as carefully as I should have.)

Again for the benefit of others interested in running X clients with
MicroImages's server, here is a short summary of my experience so far:

1. The most common problem for many clients is fonts that may not be
available. I haven't tried yet to install additional fonts, but I
suspect this problem is the easiest to cure, given enough disk space.
As an example, a few Perl-Tk applications I've tried fail to find
Adobe fonts and refuse to run.

2. I found differences depending on whether the remote system runs
Solaris or Linux. This may have nothing to do with the X server itself,
and possibly nothing to do with the operating system of the remote
system either. Just to give an idea of the problem, when I try to run
ddd-2.0 from Linux (ddd stands for "data display debugger"), I get

    TRANS(SocketINETConnect) () can't get address for tele-anx0238
    Error: Can't open display: tele-anx0238:0

I have no problem with the same program from Solaris. And I can run,
say, an xterm from Linux.

3. ghostview crashes the X server rather systematically. (I've tried
both Linux and Solaris as remote systems and a couple of different
postscript files. I always got crashes.)

4. xdvi sort of works, but only if I hit the "shrink1"
button. Otherwise I get a blank page. shrink1 gives the maximum
magnification in xdvi, which isn't very useful.

5. xfig seems to work fine, but I haven't figured out yet how to make
the entire window fit into my 800x640 screen.

6. xterm moslty works, but if I move the pointer along the font
selection menu (CTRL-RIGHT_MOUSE_BUTTON) then the menu entries become
invisible. With ddd I've noticed a similar problem. When a display item
is selected it should be put in reverse. However, the observed result
is that the item is completely black. In the same vein, ical's menus are
invisible. (ical is a Tcl-Tk application.)

7. One should really have a three-button mouse, because simultaneously
pressing the two buttons of a two-button mouse won't do. This is
clearly explained in the FAQ.

8. There is no LBX support. (LBX stands for "low bandwidth X", as I
discovered very recently.) In effect running clients over a 28,800 bps
connection isn't exactly pleasurable. My previous experience was with
running term between two Unix boxes over a 9600 bps connection, and
this one does not seem much faster. (Though probably it is a bit faster.)

9. To finish on a positive note, I've had no problems running Pure
Software's Quantify (from Solaris).

In summary, the installation of MicroImages's X server is easy, and it
doesn't take much disk space. With the basic installation one can get
a few things done, like fixing a detail in a xfig drawing, or running
a short debugging session with ddd. More intensive use and some
applications will require additional investment of time or a different
X server.

Fabio

-- 
Fabio Somenzi          | Phone: 303-492-3466
University of Colorado | Fax:   303-492-2758
ECE Dept.              | Email: [email-masked]
Boulder CO 80309-0425  | WWW:   http://vlsi.colorado.edu/~fabio

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