[Oberon] Re: LNO > framebuffer > VNC ?

[easlab at absamail.co.za]

cg> Q1 - what is the oldest version of N-O's VNC which worked ?
shark at gulfnet.sd64.bc.ca wrote:

> VNC and most things in the alpha release, 
> ETH Oberon / PC Native 05.01.2003, work 
> fairly well.  Is there any reason to use 
> an earlier release?

Perhaps not if you are already using a newer version.
Every change brings potential problems.
That's why it's called the bleeding-edge.

If I have perceived problems, which are not even 
acknowledged, then I should not expect find them 
cleared in the later version ?

I'll try 'new' LNO once/if I get a 'frame buffer running'.
The old LNO runs well in an xterm.
I've never seen anything but a DOS-like terminal in linux's
VTs before.  Apparently a fb driver [module or part of the
kernel] is needed.

Another nice reason to have LNO and N-O running together:
the unusual characters like 'copyright-sign' ...etc. which were
never include in *Scn.Fnt can be gradually added as they 
occur, by using a commonly available char-map under linux.
Just to see what the missing char looks like, to be able to
create it manually with N-O's available FontEditor.Panel .

BTW this is an example of the concept of 'negative entropy',
where the system gets better [tuned] by use - instead of dirty:
if some contributor[s] adds a few chars each year, we can 
approach perfection, provided the accumulating mechanism 
exists.

Q- would it be absurd to simulate 'transparencies' by
having the linux system switching the LNO on & off fast,
to facilitate 'seeing the linux image' while writing to
the N-O destination ?

== Chris Glur.

PS. the related text [below] was written previously and I 
believe not posted ?   The idea is to leaverage the many facilities
avaliable to linux, which will never be available to ETH systems.

Subject: LNO for USB ?

 A good reason to have a working LNO, is to be able to
access facilities not available in NO.

Eg. *.pdf , *.ps viewing, where the result of the view-under-linux
can be immediately used by switching back to LNO.

Similarly, NO drivers for new hardware will/must always lag
behind equivalent linux drivers  -- we do/should ride on the
back of linux.

The problem of forking/fragmentation of efforts:--
Understandably the enthusiasm is for efforts towards the newer
BlueBottle, Aos ...whatever [let's call it/them 'NO-descendants'].
Does this mean that by 'upgrading' from NO to the newer
versions, one will have more facilities ?  Not so !!
The main power of NO [and presumably its decendants] is the 
text handling facilities. And internet usage MUST be an essential
part of the system usage.  

Yet it is obvious to me that inet-access is not done by NO-descendants 
because:
 1. there's increasing top-posting and absurd/funny stuff, like 
 replacing single & double quotes with character strings - in general
 a degeneration to using special formats: mime, rtf, and M$ & other
 proprietry garbage.
 2. the problem-to-reset-serial-port-after-abnormal-exit which 
  I raised years ago, and was never aknowledged nor denied.
  And which has now been 'worked around confirmed' a thousand 
  times by an extra manual 'reset': 
     effectivley Close <theModem's port>.
  And google shows that this problem was has been discussed since 
 1992, even in connection with Apple-machines.
  Ie. NO-descendants users haven't acknowledged/solved the 
  problem, and accordingly just don't use ETH-systems for inet
  access, since they would have to continually reboot.

Perhaps that's another use for LNO: use linux to access inet,
and then pass the text to ETH-system[s] for its superior text
handling facilities.

Re. bridging between different OSs, DOS/FAT and diskettes
have served the computer industry well; but fd0 has reached
the end of its life.  Especially with minaturisation driven by
mobility and energy wastage awarness, USB-stick seems to
be the replacement ?

I'm guessing that NO-descendants is [or will soon be] 
USB-flash capable, but NO will not be upgraded.