Welcome to the official Xnext3 distribution!

This document is intended to help you getting started with Xnext3.


  WHAT IS Xnext3?

Xnext3 is an X server for OPENSTEP platforms that supports various
screen depths reflecting the different NeXT and DriverKit modes.
An X screen that's realised as a window in the common OPENSTEP UI
enables you to start and display X11 applications on your system.

  X?

What is X11 anyway?  It's also refered to as the X window system
(note that Xwindows is commonly used, but a wrong term) which is
_the_ GUI platform on UNIX and UNIX like systems.
Linux, Suns Solaris, HPUX, and SGI's IRIX all use X as their basic
graphical user interface.

X11R6.3 is the last official release from the X Consortium.

Although there are a lot of applications for OPENSTEP, and most
OPENSTEP software is by far better to use and more advanced than
many other applications, there is an enormous potential of small
but really useful tools and utilities available for X that noone
cared to port to other GUI platforms.


  HOW IT WORKS

X11 is no operating system, but an extention to the OS you are
running.  Basically all you need to execute an X application
just like an OPENSTEP app is a program that's called the "X server".

This program provides X applications ("X clients") with the potential
to draw to the screen and handle events.  Xnext is exactly this:
it converts OPENSTEP events to X events and re-directs X output
to the DisplayPostscript screen.


  GETTING STARTED

Before you can start the Xnext.app application, some libraries and data
have to be installed on your OPENSTEP system.  To be specific, you'll
need fonts (X does not use Postscript fonts), application data, and
the shared libs in case you want to execute X apps locally from your
OPENSTEP machine.


  OPTIONS

Xnext.app automatically executes an initialization script after starting the
server.  You can set the file to be executed in Xnext.app's preferences, by
default the file .xinitrc in your home folder is used (this file may not
exist if this is your first X contact on OPENSTEP).

Please note that the xhost command doesn't work when placed as the first
command in the xinitrc file.  Also it's worth to mention that the xinitrc
script is executed by the csh, so if you put shell commands in, use csh's.


  REMOTE EXECUTION

You might know the NSHost feature of OPENSTEP, where you can display the output
of an application on a remote host.  X11 offers exactly the same feature with
an -display option added to the command string.

So you're able to execute X apps on a remote UNIX system (like the Netscape
Communicator) and have the user interface appear on your Xnext server running
on OPENSTEP.


  BUG REPORT

If you discover a bug or would like a feature to be implemented,
please inform the author at stefan_leuker@hotmail.com


  SHAREWARE

Xnext is shareware -- if you want to use the software, you have to
buy it.  The registration fee is US$20 (or 30DM, if you like) and
is subject to change in the future.  Your license will be valid for
the current Xnext distribution and all future versions.

Please contact me for details or fill out the registration form
(it's in the /usr/X11R6.3 folder: Xnext-Registration.rtf).

Stefan Leuker
Grefrather Strasse 4
41334 Nettetal
GERMANY
eMail: stefan_leuker@hotmail.com

Find additional information about Xnext's ongoing development at
  http://www.angelfire.com/biz/sle/Xnext.html

Copyright (c) 1998 by Stefan Leuker