The Resistor Network

> unsubstantiated claims

Indeed:

> It used to be easy to have any kind of X client connect to a remote X server. Back in the early 1990s on the HP Apollo workstations in college, it was a simple matter of setting the DISPLAY environment variable, but that was before network security was a concern.

Remote controlling an HP 1670G logic analyzer with a Linux PC X server

https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/12/26/Controlling-an-HP-1670G-with-Your-Linux-PC-X-Server.html

10 hours ago here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38778807

and also:

> I recently scored a Hewlett Packard 1670A Deep Memory Logic Analyzer and I finally had a chance to fire it up. This unit dates back to 1992 and is packed with all sorts of interesting options for connecting peripherals to it. One particular feature that caught my eye was the option to connect to an X Server.

A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility

http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html

10 years ago on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850591

Yes. There were a number of rapidly developed versions up to X10 in 1986, which was the first one released under a free license (and thus the first one widely adopted). X11 was an overhaul of X10 intended to increase portability/compatibility, and also the first version developed as a community open source project rather than internally to MIT. That came out in 1987.

As for why X11 was the last major version: the protocol has remained backwards compatible since then. Clients created decades ago can still operate with modern X servers. It's pretty cool!

http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html

For perspective:

The GNU toolkit (gcc and coreutils at least) has been continuously developed for over thirty years of unbroken project history. Linux itself, if you are willing to do a bit of repository surgery[1], has a continuous commit history dating back to 1991. The X Window System was created in 1984, and you can still run GUI applications from that period[2] on a modern system. Even KDE is over twenty years old.

[1] https://archive.org/details/git-history-of-linux

[2] http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html

Software-generated video is definitely difficult to get working from scratch, limited in resolution, and expensive in CPU cycles, but it's been done on several microcontroller families [1] [2] [3]. You generally still need an external resistor network to do the D/A conversion, though.

[1] http://www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/video/sx/gamesys.php

[2] http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/03/avr-vga-generation.html

[3] https://hackaday.io/project/8537-vga-blinking-lights