Subject: Re: SVGA and the kitchen sink. Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1992 21:49:06 PST From: pmacdona@sanjuan.UVic.CA (Peter MacDonald)
Two things. First I think bios and therefore V86 access will be required
if for no other reason than because two many clone vendors rely on it
to deliver "compatibility".
Second. Before X11 can even be looked at, another feature will be
required. That is, shared dynamic linked libraries. I just finished
working on a Decstation 3100 for 6 months using Ultrix which does
not have this. The executables are monsterous, and the only thing
they eat more of than disk space is memory. Plus, if Linux is to
be distributed over ftp, and we wish to permit access to distributing
binaries, then much net-width can be saved. But most of all, since
Linux is fast evolving, if we want to avoid frequent recompiles of
all utilities every time a library routine changes (such as job
control requires) then we better get shared libs fast.
The moral of the tale is, if anyone out there is currently idle,
and knows something about compilers, and is willing to tackle
shared libs, please step forward at the sound of the tone.
^G