XCB preview release is available

The <a href="http://xcb.freedesktop.org">X C Binding library</a> today
<a
href="
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-announce/2006-...">released
a 0.9 preview version</a>, to get more widespread testing in preparation
for a full 1.0 release.  You can download the <a
href="http://xcb.freedesktop.org/dist/">tarballs</a>, <a
href="
http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=xcb;a=summary">browse the GIT
repository</a>, or pull the latest bits via <a
href="http://git.or.cz">GIT</a>.  You can also build Xlib using XCB as a
transport layer, and run all your X applications using Xlib/XCB.

The XCB library provides an interface to the X Window System protocol,
slated to replace the current Xlib interface.  It has several advantages
over Xlib, including size (small library and lower memory footprint),
latency hiding (batch several requests and wait for the replies later),
direct protocol access (one-to-one mapping between interface and
protocol), <a
href="
http://www.freedesktop.org/software/xcb/usenix-zxcb.pdf">proven</a>
thread support (access XCB from multiple threads, with no explicit
locking), and easy creation of new extensions (automatically generates
its interface from the machine-parsable XML-XCB protocol descriptions).
Xlib can also use XCB as a transport layer, allowing software to make
requests and receive responses with both, which eases porting to XCB.
However, client programs, libraries, and toolkits will gain the most
benefit from a native XCB port.