8.5 on x

[steve@gec-epl.co.uk (Steve_Kilbane)]

> From: dschieb%muse.CV.NRAO.EDU@gec-epl.co.uk (Darrell Schiebel)
> 	Does anyone know if the source to this '8 1/2' window system 
> 	is available somewhere via FTP, or the chances of porting
> 	it to something like X??

i don't know if the source is available outside of the plan 9 distribution,
but there are two parts to your answer:

(a) the fundamentals of 8.5 - the file serving - can't be ported to x under
    unix, because unix doesn't provide the right file primitives (although
    you might get something close using named pipes, unix sockets or a user-
    level nfs server, but you still don't get the union directories)
(b) it's possible to produce a look-and-feel 8.5 window manager under unix
    (there is already a public-domain version of 9term available), but i'd
    rather not have one under x - the whole point of 8.5 is that it throws
    away all the baggage, and just does it right first time (bit like rc,
    really).