X-11 Server switch?

[Jim Frost]

In article <356 at arnor.UUCP> uri at arnor () writes:
|	I have a problem. My X-11 Server is terribly slow (unusable).
|
|	It's ENIX 5.3.2. I'm trying to find a way to speed it up.

I can answer this immediately: port the generic one yourself and
optimize it (several weeks work if you're really familiar with
graphics under the OS, not including the optimization) or wait until
the vendor releases a new one.  We played with ENIX for a little while
and decided that its X is unusable.  It was also missing most of the
useful X utilities.

On the up side for 80386 users, Interactive's X is the fastest
non-hardware-assisted X server I've seen on the 80386.  It's still not
lightning, but it's usable.  They did a good job.

More specifically:

|	1) Will the server (and all the system) work REALLY faster,
|	   if I plug in 80387 chip? (I'm afraid to make the sh*t
|	   usable one needs 5x to 7x boost).

It's *possible* that arcing code will speed up (perhaps
significantly).  Don't bet on it, though.

|	2) Is X-11 Server usually sensitive to the kernel terminal
|	   driver? I mean, if I just take MIT distribution, or
|	   something like that and try to install their X-Server,
|	   should it work? Or I need also special terminal driver?
|	   How much the driver<->server interface is standartized?

If you can treat the video as a frame buffer, you're a long way to
getting the MIT distribution on your system.  Unfortunately (or not
so, depending on your point of view) the MIT distribution is BSD so
there will be many other problems.

I think you'll find that the ENIX X is basically a straight port.  The
MIT portable server is *slow*, for a good many reasons.  They didn't
really try to get it fast and the code is quite hairy so few people
are trying to speed it up.

If you *must* use ENIX, I'd recommend badgering them to speed it up.
The current product is terrible.  If you have the choice, switch to
Interactive.  In either case, remember that X is a memory hog and
you'll want at *least* 8mb for a usable system, preferably a lot more
than that.

jim frost
software tool & die
madd at std.com