Newbie X11 question

[beachycove]

Three small questions from someone who knows nothing of this subject and very little about UNIX in general:

1. Would it be possible in A/UX's X11 environment to view and control a web browser running (if I understand things, as X windowing application) on a MacOSX machine?

2. Would it be at all usable — I am not wanting to watch videos or the like, but would, e.g., something like https work, or would remote login to 68kmla work, for that matter? Would it take forever on a Q950 or the like?

3. Could this be combined with use of a normal Macintosh program running in the virtual System 7 environment of A/UX?

What underlies the questions is the possibility of something like wordprocessing using Word 5.1 in A/UX while being connected remotely to a web-based Reference Manager or something like ProQuest (accesses PDF periodicals, among other things), and cutting and pasting from the latter to the former.

And yes, I know that there are easier ways to do this.... However, doing things the easy way is not always especially interesting.

I am always on the lookout for ways of exploring the capabilities of my old hardware and software, and this might be one of them.

 

[porter]

Would it be possible in A/UX's X11 environment to view and control a web browser running on a MacOSX machine?

Yes if it's an X11 browser, not Quartz.

.. https work, or would remote login to 68kmla work, for that matter?

The MacOSX box would be doing all the HTTPS work. The AU/X box is acting purely as an X display.

Could this be combined with use of a normal Macintosh program running in the virtual System 7 environment of A/UX?

Yes, the MacX application runs as a Macintosh Application on A/UX.

 

[beachycove]

If I understand this rightly, the suggestion is that this can be done via MacX, but this is a Macintosh rather than the full X11 A/UX-Unix environment. That was not quite what I was hoping for, but I suppose that the up-side is that I could do the same thing that I started out with, for all intents and purposes, on a PowerBook running, say, 7.6.1 and MacX, and avoid A/UX altogether.

Maybe the question could be clarified: Are Macintosh applications like Word 5.1 unavailable when you opt for the full X11-windowing environment (if that is what it is called) native to A/UX? That would be a pity.

 

[porter]

Maybe the question could be clarified: Are Macintosh applications like Word 5.1 unavailable when you opt for the full X11-windowing environment (if that is what it is called) native to A/UX?

You can run the console on A/UX in three ways

(a) as a simple text-only console

( B) as an X11 based windowing environment

© as an integrated Macintosh environment

You can use an X display on the A/UX box by either running ( B) , or running MacX under ©. Only with option © can you run Word and other Macintosh environment.

 

[II2II]

While we are on the topic, what are the limitations of using an old X server with new X clients? We are, after all, talking about an X server that implements (moderately?) different standards.

 

[porter]

We are, after all, talking about an X server that implements (moderately?) different standards.

X11R5 rather than X11R6 is my understanding . MacX also behaves differently to the native AU/X X server.

Clients are supposed to degrade gracefully if features or extensions aren't supported, however if a piece of FOSS has only ever been tested on a modern XServer it won't have tested those code paths. Worst cases would be - looks like an explosion in a paint factory, the interface locks up or the client app traps.

 

[beachycove]

X11R6 is available for A/UX 3.x toward the bottom here.