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Xref: sserve comp.unix.sys5.r4:8965 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:7925 comp.unix.misc:15321 comp.unix.bsd:15765 comp.sys.powerpc:30799 comp.sys.intel:27290 comp.os.misc:3614 comp.os.linux.misc:32502 comp.os.linux.development:21846 comp.os.386bsd.misc:4586 comp.os.386bsd.development:2933 Newsgroups: comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd,comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.os.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!wariat.org!kf8nh!bsa From: bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery) Subject: Re: Interested in PowerPC for Linux / FreeBSD / NetBSD? Message-ID: <1994Dec29.225921.23979@kf8nh.wariat.org> Organization: Brandon's Linux box and AmPR node, Mentor, OH Date: Thu, 29 Dec 1994 22:59:21 GMT References: <3dv5oj$ibd@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <NEWTNews.21154.788736098.muzaffer@omer1.smixedsignal.com> Lines: 38 Also sprach muzaffer@smixedsignal.com (<NEWTNews.21154.788736098.muzaffer@omer1.smixedsignal.com>): +--------------- | (Of course, I may be terribly mistaken here. If there is something wrong with | the first paragraph, please tell me and I will shut up). +------------->8 All NT programs (and, for that matter, all MS-Windows 3.1 programs) go though several interfaces including a DLL call interface and a set of device drivers in order to perform GUI operations. This means that you can change the mapping between the call interface and the actual GUI operations by replacing the DLL(s), the drivers, or both. Replacing the DLLs is a bit tricky in 3.1 (it's probably impossible), since the "DLL" being called is in fact the MS-Windows kernel and (as far as I can determine, but then I'm not much of an MS-Windows programmer) there's no way to interpose your own DLLs to replace system DLLs like Solaris (!) has; but Sun's Wabi and the Wine development effort might count as examples of this method. Replacing the drivers for this purpose has already been done (Quarterdeck's DESQview/X) and it works fine, if a little slowly. NT supposedly has the ability to replace the module that sits between the call-level interface and the graphics drivers with a module that can do other protocols, e.g. to reroute graphcs requests to an X server. Check the January 1995 COMPUTER LANGUAGES for an article about NT's graphics subsystem which specifically discusses X interfacing (from the opposite direction, but some mention is made of the possibility of mapping NT calls to X requests). Remember, Xlib doesn't define X; the X protocol defines X. Xlib is merely a C library which performs X protocol requests for the program, insulating it from the details of the X protocol and the network connection. There's no particular reason that the standard Xlib calling interface couldn't be replaced with the NT calling interface... ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH [44.70.248.67] bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org Linux development: iBCS2, JNOS, MH ~\U Controlling application developers is like herding cats. --Oracle DBA Manual