On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, Mark Vojkovich wrote: >> I know there have been countless discussions on the X messaging system, but >> most of them missed the point. That is that such a messaging system >> introduces an enormous amount of complexity. As far as I know the only reason >> for having the X messaging system is the remote display feature. But I guess >> that less than 5% of the XFree users are actually using this feature and >> there are already other solutions like VNC available. >> Another source of complexity comes from the ancient, more than 10 years >> old X API. Many people argue that one just has to add new extensions to keep >> XFree up to date. But this way X gets more and more complex. And why are the > > X is highly extensible by design. It's far less complex than alternative >window systems like MS Windows or OS-X and is probably more extensible.
I'd definitely have to agree with that for sure. >> As a result of this complexity the developers working on XFree are less >> efficient and it also keeps new developers from joining this project. >> What I want to suggest is to start from scratch and design a new, clean >> and modern windowing system without any legacy. I know this would be a >> pretty radical cut, but I personally don't see any alternative to overcome the >> current problems of XFree. >> The main problem with a new graphics API would be to keep backward >> compatibility with the current application base. But this problem is easy to >> solve by just porting XFree to the new API, the way it is done for OS X and >> Windows. > > I think you have the wrong mailing list. XFree86 is an implementation >of the X-Window system. The key phrase here is "the X-Window System". >XFree86 is headed in the directions of an "X-Window compatible" system, >meaning we intend to extend XFree86 well beyond the base sample implementation, >and in many regards we have done this already, but we have no intention of >dropping what you call legacy support. > > As far as development being stuck, no, I don't think so. It's just >that the people who know enough about anything to get things done are >very few. I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head right there. An effort at a website with tutorials, HOWTO's and other developer related help information geared at helping NEW developers get up to scratch on given areas would be very useful if someone has the time to work on it. I've been writing some things for a while, none of which are complete. Something like the dri website's new developer info, etc. That would start to help anyway. I think it will happen in time. -- Mike A. Harris Shipping/mailing address: OS Systems Engineer 190 Pittsburgh Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, XFree86 maintainer Ontario, Canada, P6C 5B3 Red Hat Inc. http://www.redhat.com ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
