Faking it under Unix (was Re: Plan 9: The future)

[Arnold Robbins arnold@cc.gatech.edu]

You are relatively new to the list, so you may not know about 9term and the
customized gwm from australia.  These "help" in making looking Unix look
more plan 9 like.

First, you need to get the 9term dist from ftp.cs.su.oz.au in I think
/pub/matty.  This is a terminal emulator for X that behaves like an 8.5
window. It's built on top of sam's libframe and libXg.  I don't think it
comes with aviion support, so you may have some work to do there.

Next you need John Mackin's customized gwm, which is a window manager that
makes X look a lot like a blit. It was in the top level directory of
civil.su.oz.au and I have it mirrored in ftp.cc.gatech.edu, get
/pub/adr/gwm-dist.tar.

Finally, you need a decent shell, either 'rc' or 'es'. Both are archived at
toronto somewhere, I don't remember where.  I use 'es', although I for
the most part just type commands at it, and don't have the time I'd like
to take advantage of its power.  There are mailing lists run off toronto
for both rc and es, although they've been quite quiet lately. (Alas, the
two authors of the programs both work at start-up companies, which means
they've had little time to do the real work of caring for their programs. :-)

Anyway, the combination of sam, 9term+es, and the window manager give a
*very* consistent feel to the environment, with a nice minimalist feel
to the whole thing.  I've been using this exclusively for about a year.
The only time I use xterm is to read news, or if I'm at home to dial in
to work.

Enjoy!

Arnold Robbins --- Continuing Education, College of Computing
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280	Phone: +1 404 894 9214 (has voice mail)
E-mail: arnold.robbins@cc.gatech.edu	FAX:   +1 404 853 9378
"I'm just a hitchhiker along the Information Superhighway." -- Me