Re: What's gemX ?

[sjg@phlem.ph.kcl.ac.uk]

Hi Theo

> I found an archive called "gemX.tar.gz" on ftp.fu-berlin.de.
> There's no readme or an other file, which could give some
> hints on what it is. I even was not able to compile the stuff.
> ( missing library :-) )
> Seem's it's from Simon. Hi Simon, are you there ? What is it ?

Hmm - this was a very early (and soon aborted) attempt to create a unix/X
library so that GEM C programs would compile. I soon decided it was easier to
wait for the mind-numbingly slow gcc to compile rather than implement an AES
in X. I thought it would be trivial to implement the VDI primitives, so I
started to do the RSC stuff and, not knowing the format of an RSC file, failed
miserably. When I later found the format out my enthusiasm had died. 

I'm surprised it made it off this site, to be honest :-) I put it on so 
a friend could download it :-)

I hear there are people with *far* more advanced, and more flexible, approaches
to the problem ...

Hi Charles,

> Well, I've downloaded it and tried it out, and I can get it to compile
> on SunOS 4.1.3 if I make a few changes.  (Not the ST, since I haven't
> got MiNT-X installed properly yet).  Trouble is, once I've done that,
> the resulting executable doesn't work.  :-(  (X protocol error from
> Xlib almost immediately).

Now this is surprising - It runs fine on my DECstation. We're running X11R5.

> There seems to be most of the AES and quite a lot of the VDI
> implemented here, but buggy.  (I found a couple of bugs already, and
> I'm no coding wizard).  When I single-stepped the program under gdb, I
> could see it drawing a desktop window, and several GEM-style windows
> inside that before it got an X protocol error.

Heh, I'm not claiming it wasn't buggy - what was implemented was done inside
2 or 3 days... Ultimately I had dreams of using unix-domain sockets for
GEM communications etc. But it needs *lots* of work. Since my contract runs
out on March 31, I'm desperately trying to write up my PhD and find a new job.
No time for play - Jack is a dull boy :-(


ATB,
        Simon.


>>>   Simon Gornall - Kings College London. Email: sjg@phlem.ph.kcl.ac.uk  <<<
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