4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat8/Xsun.8c
XSUN(8) UNIX Programmer's Manual XSUN(8)
NAME
Xsun - X window system Sun workstation implementation notes
DESCRIPTION
The Sun X server cannot be started by _i_n_i_t(_8) ; it must be
started as a command from the normal login shell. It takes
two mandatory command line arguments, the first being the
file name of the frame buffer (typically /_d_e_v/_f_b, special
case "0" interpreted as /_d_e_v/_f_b) and the second being 0:
Xsun /dev/fb 0
The Sun X server will normally be started by _x_i_n_i_t(1).
The initial Sun drivers use the -lpixrect library to address
the device, and will thus run on Sun 1 and Sun 2 monochrome
and color displays. The drivers will work with either the
2.0 or 3.0 versions of the Sun system.
The Sun X server looks for its fonts in a default path of
directories, which can be overridden by the XFONTPATH
environment variable. This is a colon-separated list of
directories, in which ~ can be used to indicate the user's
$HOME.
SEE ALSO
X(8c), X(1), xinit(1)
`Xlib - C Language X Interface' `ddX - Device Dependent X
Interface'
FILES
/tmp/X* Unix domain socket
AUTHORS
David Rosenthal
James Gosling
Copyright (c) 1986 by Sun Microsystems.
We would like to acknowledge generous help from Jim Gettys
and Bob Scheifler.
BUGS
The X server on the Sun maintains the cursor image itself;
it does not use the kernel mouse tracking. The implementa-
tion is designed to keep the cursor in the bitmap as much as
possible, at the cost of additional computation. An alter-
native implementation that delayed replacing the cursor
until the server was about to block would have much lower
overhead. The design decision was based on experience with a
range of implementations in Carnegie-Mellon's _A_n_d_r_e_w window
manager; users seemed to prefer a cursor that was slower
but didn't flash so much.
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XSUN(8) UNIX Programmer's Manual XSUN(8)
Get and put operations on non-constant color Pixmaps with
even widths will be significantly faster than on those with
odd widths; this is due to a mis-match between the align-
ment restrictions of X and the Sun pixrect library.
The server can address only one display; this is a restric-
tion of the X system itself and is not likely to change
soon.
The drivers at present have a number of restrictions, most
of which should be removed in future versions with a little
effort:
- Sun 1 color displays untested; they will probably do
strange things to text, cursors, etc.
- Dashed lines will be drawn as solid.
- Brush shapes are not implemented; the brush track will
be drawn as a solid line.
- Tile filling with a bitmap (i.e. not a constant Pixmap)
through an xymask is not implemented.
- Filling a polygon is not implemented.
- Up events are not available for any keys on the key-
board.
- Down events are not available for the
SHIFT/SHIFT_LOCK/CTRL/META keys.
- No SHIFT_LOCK key is defined.
- On the 2.X kernel (but not the 3.0 kernel), the META
key is defined in a restricted way. It is possible to
type meta-characters, but not possible to receive
meta-buttons from the mouse.
- The function keys generate the standard ASCII escape
sequences, they are not available as individual keys.
- The "feep" (audible bell) function on the Sun defaults
to minimum intensity.
- There are differences in transfer function between the
Sun/2 and uVAX color displays; the /_u_s_r/_l_i_b/_r_g_b data-
base should be display-dependent.
- It should be possible to use ~name to indicate another
user's $HOME in the XFONTPATH variable.
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XSUN(8) UNIX Programmer's Manual XSUN(8)
- Font loading is slow, because of the need to convert
from strike to bitmap format, swap bytes, invert
pixel order and so on. It should be possible to use
both Sun and X fonts; loading Sun fonts would be fas-
ter.
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