On Mar 22, 2006, at 7:56 PM, Kevin Toppenberg wrote:
Reuben,
Thanks for the detailed response. You have provided valuable
information about how to configure and setup X. But in the end it
still seems that it is just a method for displaying output for
programs, and managing input from the user (keyboard, mouse). So to
me it seems that VNC is conceptually the same--a way to interact with
a remote computer. Yes X seems more sophisticated and likely is more
functional.
The issue then would seem to be one of bandwidth utilization. I'm not
sure which would use less--VNC which essentially sends an *image* of
the screen, or X which would send drawing instructions to the X
server.
Kevin
At least the version of VNC I installed (under OS X) is an X11
application. I think you're confusing X11 applications with the X11
protocol.
At any rate, what is unusual (unique?) about X11 is that it is a TCP/
IP based network application, where applications communicate with a
display. If you move the mouse, a message will be sent to the
application, notifying it of the event, and the application will
respond by sending a message back indicating how the display should
be updated. Some people think this seems rather backwards, but the
applications are just ordinary network applications relying on the
services of another program to provide the user interface. That's why
it's possible to have multiple displays (on different boxes) for the
same application. It also explains why X11 can be more portable
across platforms. There seems to be some difference of opinion over
the merits of this approach. Personally, I think it is quite
ingenious, but not unproblematic, so I guess I come down somewhere in
the middle: I think of it as a useful approach having both advantages
and disadvantages. It is especially useful as a kind of lingua franca
for cross platform development, and indeed many projects use it as a
kind of fallback option. PLT Scheme, for example, has both Aqua and
X11 versions for OS X. The X11 version can be used for development,
but is also available as a pure open source option (for Darwin) if
you don't want to run OS X. Of course, X11 can also be used under Linux.
===
Gregory Woodhouse
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Before one gets the right answer, one must ask the right question."
-- S. Barry Cooper
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