Color alternatives on Symbolics

[dmitchell@trc.amoco.com (Donald H. Mitchell)]

    Date: Wed, 6 Mar 91 10:34 CST
    From: lgm@iexist.att.com (Larry Mayka)

	Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1991 13:36-0500
	From: Charles Hornig <Hornig@RIVERSIDE.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>

	screen.  You use an X window manager to select between different
	screens.

    This brings up a source of confusion for me:  Where is the X terminal
    getting all of the information and guidance it needs?  If I use a Sun
    workstation as an X graphics server, for example, the X window manager
    runs on the Sun;
Using an X terminal, you first start an X window manager on a Sun or other
host that has X window management software.  Then you start the Symbolics
console as an X window controlled by that manager.

    fonts are read off the Sun's file system; 
The NCD, GraphOn, and Tektronix all read fonts off the Sun file system.
Remember these terminals are highly powerful computers (often 68020's with
8MByte memory).  The terminals require your X startup files (e.g., .xinit) to
setup the font path information (xset fp+...).  The Sun that is running the
window manager runs the startup files.  The terminal controls font requests
and downloading.

    the server's Internet address is the address of the Sun host;
The X terminal has it's own internet address.  The X terminal is the X display
device that you pass to X programs and set as the DISPLAY environment.  The
terminal is not a device of any particular Sun host but has it's own unique
name.

    access permissions are set via Sun programs such as 'xhost';
The window manager determines what access permissions are required.  You type
'xhost ...' into a xterm that accesses the machine running the window manager.

    graphics parameters are set from startup files in the Sun's file system;
Yes, the Sun running the window manager handles this.

    On a simple
You see, simple is misleading.
    X terminal
    acting as a graphics server for the Symbolics, who/what is providing all
    this X support?  If the Symbolics itself, is there documentation as to
    how to configure and administer an X terminal from the Symbolics?
The Symbolics does almost nothing (don't flame me) with regard to window
management and X.  It is just an application not an X server.

    (Perhaps I don't understand enough of how X functionality is divided up
    among roles.)


	    Lawrence G. Mayka
	    AT&T Bell Laboratories
	    lgm@iexist.att.com

    Standard disclaimer.

Don Mitchell			dmitchell@trc.amoco.com
Amoco Production Company	(918) 660-4270
Tulsa Research Center
P.O. Box 3385, Tulsa, OK 74102