Re: [Xouvert-general] Network transparentcy and modules (was: platforms)

[Mark C. Ballew]

On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 00:30, William Lahti wrote:
> On Monday 18 August 2003 6:43 pm, address@hidden wrote:
> > > You must have read the wiki after it had gotten vandalized again. We
> > > cannot
> > > get rid of network transparency :)
> >
> > Have you thought about removing network transparency and replacing it with
> > a network "plug-in" or module system?
> >
> > The idea would be that someone could plug in any sort of network
> > transparent back end, be it IPv4, IPv6, DECnet, AppleTalk (*cough*) or
> > Myrinet's GM message passing. The idea is to be able to easily switch
> > between different types of network protocols.
> >
> > I don't know how the addition of IPv6 is going for X, but I'd be curious
> > to hear how hard it was to add and if X is heavily tied to IPv4.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> 
> We *cannot* remove network transparency. Period. There is absolutely no 
> question about it whatsoever. X11 *is* a _network_ protocol. 
> 
> I think the reason everyone thinks its slow, is because everyone thinks that 
> X11 on a local machine goes thru tcp/ip. It doesnt. It uses UNIX sockets 
> which are very fast.

Oh no, this totally isn't what I'm getting at. I was suggesting that the
network transparency be even more transparent, by allowing different
network protocols to be plugged in. I know to an extent this already
exists, but I don't know if it is hard coded in or easily to modify.

I'm thinking along the lines of using custom, upcoming, and proprietary
protocols to remote display (like over Myrinet or Dolphin networks).

Mark

-- 
Mark C. Ballew                          address@hidden
http://sublinear.net                    http://markballew.com
PGP: 0xB2A33008                         ICQ: 839986