XGas

Compilation Instructions

The code can be found here: https://codeberg.org/x11cp/x11cp.git

git clone https://codeberg.org/x11cp/x11cp.git && cd x11cp/src/xgas

Direct compilation

To compile this application, the following command should be used:

xmkmf -a && make

Toplevel Makefile

There is also a wrapper command in the top-level `Makefile` of the repository where this is can be run as:

make xgas

About

Written in 1991 by Larry Medwin (at the MIT), xgas was a program originally distributed with X11, which allowed one to animate and simulate an idea gas, and how those molecules moved.

It was a really good demonstration of how mathematical models could represent a visual graphic, at a time when there was no (by today’s standards) trivial alternative.

xgas(1) is still available on the *BSDs, but has seemingly long since left the Linux repos for most distros.

A shame, really.

This was a great era for application development before “running everything in a web browser” ruined the whole experience.

This was a program using libXt (X intrinsic library) – one up from pure XLib.

Screenshots