MEX (windowing system)

{{Short description|Unix windowing system}}

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{{Infobox software

| name = Mex

| title = Mex

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| developer = Silicon Graphics

| released = {{Start date and age|1985}}

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| genre = Windowing system

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mex (multiple exposure) is a windowing system created by Silicon Graphics, used on 68k-based IRIS systems and early IRIS 4D systems.Rocky Rhodes, Paul Haeberli, Kipp Hickman, "Mex — A Window Manager for the IRIS", USENIX Conference Proceedings, Summer 1985, pages 381–392.{{Cite web |last1=Florentine |first1=Robin |last2=Locke |first2=Steven |last3=Szente |first3=Celia |last4=Williams |first4=Glen |last5=Diane |first5=Wilford |date=1985 |title=IRIS Users guide |url=https://bitsavers.org/pdf/sgi/iris/5001-051-002-0_IRIS_Users_Guide_V2.1_1985.pdf |website=bitsavers.org |publisher=Silicon Graphics, Inc |pages=247–262 |type=IRIS System Manual}} Mex was originally loaded over a network through the use of GL1 routines kept on a remote host machine, usually a VAX. When the IRIS 1400 workstation and GL2-W (IRIX) were introduced, mex was allowed to run locally. Mex was used in IRIX from the GL2-W2.1.0 release to the 4D1-2.3 release.

With the introduction of 4D1-3.0 (IRIX 3.0), and the complete migration to MIPS processors, support for the GL / GL2 powered mex ended in the late 1980s, replaced by Sun Microsystems' NeWS and the 4Sight window manager.