x11 and terminal.

[mmmdreg]

What are the obstacles that must be overcome to make X11 and terminal one and the same?

 

[alex_ant]

What do you mean?

 

[daveL]

What are the obstacles that must be overcome to make X11 and terminal one and the same?

Terminal(.app) is not an X11 application, it's an Aqua/Cocoa application, so the answer is the obstacles are insurmountable. In X11, you'd use xterm or one of its many variants. I'm assuming you're asking how you can use Terminal to access X11 applications, and the answer is there's no fricking way. It's kinda like asking if a taxi drivers in Paris will understand your English, sorta.

 

[mkrishnan]

Terminal(.app) is not an X11 application, it's an Aqua/Cocoa application, so the answer is the obstacles are insurmountable. In X11, you'd use xterm or one of its many variants. I'm assuming you're asking how you can use Terminal to access X11 applications, and the answer is there's no fricking way. It's kinda like asking if a taxi drivers in Paris will understand your English, sorta.

If it's the latter, well, it isn't totally impossible, depending on how you access the app. For instance, I have GIMP on my computer (the GIMP.app version), which is an X11 app. I can launch it from Terminal using 'open gimp.app' just like any other app.....

As for laynching xapps that are direct executable files, and not .app containers, this is also possible, although you need to do a couple of extra things:

1) Set the display variable:

DISPLAY = :0.0
export DISPLAY

2) Add the bin directories to your path (optional)

3) You can then run xapps such as xcalc and xeyes, which are found in /usr/X11R6/bin/ from the Terminal just as you would from an xterm.

 

[daveL]

If it's the latter, well, it isn't totally impossible, depending on how you access the app. For instance, I have GIMP on my computer (the GIMP.app version), which is an X11 app. I can launch it from Terminal using 'open gimp.app' just like any other app.....

As for laynching xapps that are direct executable files, and not .app containers, this is also possible, although you need to do a couple of extra things:

1) Set the display variable:

DISPLAY = :0.0
export DISPLAY

2) Add the bin directories to your path (optional)

3) You can then run xapps such as xcalc and xeyes, which are found in /usr/X11R6/bin/ from the Terminal just as you would from an xterm.

All you are doing is indirectly starting up the X11 environment from Terminal. I don't think that was the question, but I could be wrong (where's the original poster?)

 

[mkrishnan]

All you are doing is indirectly starting up the X11 environment from Terminal. I don't think that was the question, but I could be wrong (where's the original poster?)

Hehe, yeah, we scared 'em off! 😱

Well, really, yes, it's indirectly running the X11 environment, but X apps running in OS X run as operating system processes like anything else. The only difference is that they send their graphical content to the X wm instead of to the normal Aqua one. But since Xterms and Terminals run on the same operating system, I'm not sure I see that it's anymore indirect or direct to launch an X app from one or the other....

But that's all semantics. 😀

 

[yippy]

I think what he was saying is that having two different command lines is annoying. Can't you just do all of your terminal commands from the X11 command prompt?

 

[mkrishnan]

I think what he was saying is that having two different command lines is annoying. Can't you just do all of your terminal commands from the X11 command prompt?

And the answer, AFAIK, is yes, you can. I just tried it, and first, it opens the same bash implementation, with the same rc files. Second, all the usual tricks in Terminal, such as "open isync.app" work -- note both the use of the wrong case and the open command. 🙂

But I guess I should shut up if the OP isn't even bothering to read any of this. 😉

 

[mmmdreg]

haha nah I'm here and reading =) Just not writing. Thanks for all the replies! And yes, I was pretty much asking X11 could be incorporated into the terminal.. but yes =)