On Adobe Illustrator / i286 / Xenix 2.1.3 / EGA / Mouse

[Tony Olekshy]

According to one of our local software retailers, they now have access
to the Adobe Illustrator for the i286 ($699 CDN ~= $575 US).  I have a
nice antique IBM 5170 (aka true blue PC-AT) running SCO Xenix V 2.1.3
with 3.5MB of memory and a DOS disk partition (and 9-track tape!).
(I'd have to say that it works quite well if it's true that SunOS 4.*
requires >4MB just for the OS--this thing doesn't even have to swap ;-)

I intend to occasionally use Illustrator to render images for
documentation (from hand-drawn sketches), so I don't mind booting over
to DOS for drawing sessions.  The PostScript images will be accessed
from ditroff documents (that already works).  My questions are:

 1) I need to upgrade to an EGA console.  What gotcha's are lying in
    wait for me with 2.1.3?  The doc's say that IBM EGA works.  Does
    it?  Do others?  Are some better?

 2) I presume I need a bus mouse (no COM2, just a multiport board that
    doesn't work under DOS).  Does Xenix just quietly ignore it?  Are
    some mice better than others?

 3) The Adobe doc's say you need 640kB + expanded, but I have 512kB +
    expanded 'cause the tape drive uses some space in there.  DOS knows
    this (SETUP and RAM Disk works), but will it cause a problem for
    Illustrator?

Please edit the newsgroups line to reflect which branch(s) of the
Illustrator/286/Xenix discussion you are responding to.  Email is
ok too.  I will post a summary of responses, the configuration I
acquire, and an evaluation of its usefulness in about 2 weeks.

Thanks, etc., Tony Olekshy (...!alberta!oha!tony or tony at oha.UUCP).