MGR is ported to the UNIX pc (was Re: More X foolishness)

[Brian D. Botton]

In article <3226 at umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> rhealey at ub.d.umn.edu (Rob Healey) writes:
>In article <1095 at icus.islp.ny.us> lenny at icus.islp.ny.us (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
>>Bellcore's MGR has been ported to the UNIX pc.  Yes, another window 
>>environment that has the benefits of being able to use the entire screen, 
>>user-level code (no wind driver), ease of window reshaping, resizing, 
>>moving, etc...  Lots more too!
>>
>>BTW: Regarding Item #3 above, Brad did just that.  /dev/mouse is part
>>of the kbd driver (a hacked Ditto version).  
>>
>	Umm, does this clobber the features of the 3.51m keyboard driver in
>	the process? Since the need for the new kbd driver was eliminated
>	with 3.51m can the extra code for MGR be installed seperate from
>	the unneeded kbd code?

  The keyboard driver has to be replaced, changes had to be made to
support the mouse the way Mgr needs it supported.  The code doesn't
interfere with UA, so you don't have to worry about that.  As far as
loosing the neat new features, the kfeature program that was posted,
by Gil?, lets you do some of them.  For the others, you get source,
so you can do what you want.  Maybe not as convenient, but you don't
really loose much.
  Mgr also requires a new version of the pty device driver.  Not only have
a few bugs been fixed, but select is included.  This version of select
allows multiple processes to call select at once, unlike the select that
was released last summer.  It only implements the readfds part, but the stubs
for writefds and exceptfds are present.

>
>	Also, can MGR be run on systems without the user mode video hardware
>	"patch"? Some of us college aged paupers can't afford cushy extras
>	like food and a roof over our heads let alone hardware mods to our
>	toys... B^(.
>

  There is absolutely no way that Mgr will work without the vidpal daughter
board.  The partial kit costs $10, and the rest of the parts run an additional
$15 or so.  For those who would like the partial kit, send me e-mail.

  For those who are wondring, Brad has spent over 6 months working on the
port.  Usually spending an hour or so every night and a significant portion
of his weekend on his machine.  His wife has been more than understanding
about his obsession, ;-).  I had hoped to help him more, but I have spent
my free time with my new girl friend and shipping kits.  Anyway, Mgr is now
in beta test with a few people other than myself, so it should be more widely
available soon.
  Some people have asked "why use Mgr?".  For one thing, it is a far superior
program developement environment.  It also has some neat features that are
similar to X.  It is fairly fast, and you have source, so if you don't like
something, you can fix/change it.  Also, Brad has fixed it up so you can
run UA or Mgr, or UA within Mgr, or Mgr within UA, so you don't have to give
up things like install.
  I wouldn't mind seeing X on the 3B1, but the people/persons who work on
it should understand that it will take a significant chunk of your time.
Also, with the hardware limitations of the 3B1/7300, I'm afraid the result
might not be what was expected.

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