From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 19:56:25 +0100
From: Digby Tarvin digbyt@acm.org
Subject: [9fans] X device
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 7d70afa0-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <19980825185625.nb3wGJDgHBBStUsNjEFJBc_r7OmAkGQBPR4bm1DFfBw@z>

>
>Yes, the X work is part of the standard Inferno distribution.
>It supports the Linux, Solaris, and other Unix ports.
>The Inferno graphics model is now, with minor modifications,
>the core graphics system in Brazil, our in-house follow-on to
>Plan 9, but we haven't put the X support in Brazil.  It doesn't
>make too much sense anyway, because Brazil isn't hosted by
>another system.  Instead, we have a Windows-based simulation
>of a Brazil terminal, using completely different technology than
>was used to get Inferno running under X.  It is essentially the
>same, though, as what was used to get Inferno running under
>Windows.  Again, the difference is whether you get to run your
>own code on the machine with the frame buffer.

I assume the Windoze base is just so you can use the vendor
supplied drivers for the graphics cards. Otherwise I would think it better
to run a real operating system on the PC.

Is there discussion of a 'Brazil' upgrade available to Plan 9
licencees (or better still, commercial release) one day?
I guess you are asked that all the time, but so much of
the industry seems to have stagnated in the
Microsoft mire, reinventing the same old stuff,
where requiring more memory and processing power seems to be taken
as advancement..  oops, sorry - don't get me started on that. But
it would be nice to think that there was some hope for the industry
on the horizon..

>
>I cannot comment on whether you can adapt X to do anything.
>I learned what I had to do get my stuff working, and then went
>to a corner and licked my wounds.  I'm not going back in there.

If you can program under Windows then you have thicker skin
than I have :-)

Regards,
DigbyT

P.S. The naming of Brazil wouldn't have followed the Plan 9
"what was the last movie we watched" strategy would it :-)

-- 
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                              digbyt@acm.org
http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk