The need for mgps

[Paul Burchard <burchard at horizon.gw.umn.edu>]

I have been discussing with the folks in Warwick the possibility of  
running a European mirror of our WWW application gallery.  However,  
we are getting stuck on the point that there does not currently seem  
to be any way for Geomview to create an image file without the  
intervention of some sort of display server.  I've attached below the  
explanation of why this is a problem for them.

This lends support to Stuart's suggestion that we should write a  
direct PostScript driver based on Daeron's mgx11.  (After the site  
visit, of course.)


Rob McMahon <cudcv at csv.warwick.ac.uk> writes:
> Paul Burchard <burchard at geom.umn.edu> writes:
> >
> > The 3D graphics subsystem does not currently have any
> > driver for direct output to an image file (a PostScript
> > driver is being planned but is some way off).  On the other
> > hand, this subsystem will work fine with the generic MIT X
> > server, and this X server can be anywhere on your network.
> 

> I think this is going to be a major stumbling block.  The
> only machines we can guarantee to be up and running a
> particular process are the multi-user systems, none of
> which have frame-buffers.  The only Unix systems with
> frame-buffers are the workstations, which people are
> always rebooting, and which are not set up to always run an
> X server (which X server is run is down to the user,
> although most people use the MIT X one).  These
> workstations are not running Solaris 2, in any case, and
> do not have the DPS extension.
> 

> Rob

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Paul Burchard	<burchard at geom.umn.edu>
``I'm still learning how to count backwards from infinity...''
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