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From: mi@aldan.saturn.net (Mikhail Teterin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.x,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Re: Sometimes you need X server source (Was: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium)
Date: 30 Mar 1996 23:27:49 GMT
Organization: Aldan at Newton Upper Falls
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <4jkg1l$dl@titan.saturn.net>
References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu>
<4j36ev$prl@news.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de> <4ja099$r8k@ceylon.gte.com>
<ragnaroek1996Mar28.063723.8733@news2.compulink.com>
Reply-To: mi@ALDAN.algebra.com
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Honorable Jonathan Walters
wrote on Mar 28, 1996
(in article <ragnaroek1996Mar28.063723.8733@news2.compulink.com>):
=Is it a figment of my imagination or do most modems already compress
=any data being transfered. That would make LBX a waste of time.
1st, LBX this is not really relevant, because it is not the only
thing one may or may not wish present in his/her X-server.
2nd, LBX is compressing on a much higher level, because it *knows*,
that it is compressing X-protocol. Modems, on the contrary, just
try to compress the stream of bits. A proper analogy whould be
optimization by compiler, which knows the source code (and can
easier understand what and how to optimize) and optimization of a
binary by hardware (CPU and friends).
Back to X -- the whole idea of X-protocol (as well as of other
protocols) is, that it is to *explain* one side what the other side
wants. Like:
X-client: Hey, put the line from (X1,Y1) to (X2,Y2) for me
please.
X-server: Done.
X-client: I'd like to use the font like: "....". You have it?
[ ... ]
Because LBX-aware X-software knows X-protocol, it can achieve much
better level of compression, then a "stupid" modem. Just like it
is easier (faster) to talk to someone, who has a clue (no offense ;)
-mi
--
"Windows for dummies"