[geeks] Yet more silly OS X questions from a newbie

[Dave McGuire]

On July 15, Mike Nicewonger wrote:
> OK, is the desktop real X? Like can I compile and run X apps?

  No...the windowing system in MacOS X isn't X11 or anything like it.
It is, in fact, based on PDF.

  It is possible to run X *with* Aqua...I will get you a URL later (I'm
in a rush now) but basically you can run an application that allows
real X windows to open up alongside your Aqua windows.  It's called
"Xdarwin".  The integration isn't 100% perfect (when you bring one X
window to the top, they *all* come to the top, since they're part of
the same "application" from the standpoint of Aqua) but it does work
very, very well.  I use it constantly.

  Anyway, with it you can compile and run X apps...but not with the
bare OS.

      -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire                  "Needing a calculator indicates that
St. Petersburg, FL              your .emacs file is incomplete." -Joshua Boyd