I have tested several X on Mac and X on Windows products for use
with Felix and I have the following advice to offer:
On Windows the newer versions of Felix (any version with dials) will
not function reliably with any of the tested X programs. I've tested
Dec eXcursion, White Pine Exodus, Chameleon's X product and several
others with several TCP/IP (Chameleon and DEC pathworks) and Decnet
transmission protocol stacks. I used both the MS and the Quarterdeck
memory manager. Nothing seems to work reliably for the PC/DOS.
On NT (actually Daytona -sorry mortals) Dec's eXcursion seems to work
with either TCP/IP or DecNET as the protocol (DNI on the Sun server).
On Mac, MacX works just enough to tempt you into using it but it is
not reliable. Exodus (White Pine Software, 40 Simon St, Nashua NH
03060) can handle Felix dials. You must configure the double
buffering (I think they call it smooth animation) ON. Out of the box it
doesn't work but if you punch enough buttons you can get it configured
to work pretty darned well. NB!! Exodus for Windows/Dos does NOT work
nor does it have the Multi-Buffering extension! (White Pine has
claimed the two versions are "the same" :-{ ) EXodus for Mac is the
only X server for Mac or DOS which has worked in my tests. You will need
lots of RAM and lots of virtual memory.
Unfortunately FELIX seems to use Xmalloc calls without first
checking for MIT-SHM on the display client. ( Xmalloc is also included
in the Multi-Buffering extension which is why eXodus for Mac works.)
Finally many "X" terminals do not include MIT-SHM. We opted to go
the X terminal route but our "X terminals" are really Sun 3/60's with
an in-house compiled version of X11R5. (Can you say cheap!) These work
OK but an 040 based Mac with eXodus is as fast and fits into most folks
operation better.
If you are able and choose to compile X11 yourself, configure the
make files so that the MIT-SHM extension is included in the
executable.
Finally your network and Felix usage may differ from mine so
test before you buy. These comments are not intended as an endorsement
of anything by either myself or the Dow Chemical Co.
I hope this helps,
David Redwine