[ale] How to tell if X is up?

[linuxhat at mailandnews.com]

Is there a good way to tell if the X server is up on the local machine?
We tried trapping the error on opening the display, but when we did 
that, one of the routines called exit() instead of just returning an
error... more details if necessary... 

-- Glenn
linuxhat at mailandnews.com
"but Julius, you s'pose t'know everything!"
"I do, but I don' know that!"  -- Brother Dave Gardener