The Future of XFree86 [LWN.net]

The Future of XFree86

Posted Mar 27, 2003 19:22 UTC (Thu) by josh_stern (guest, #4868)
Parent article: The Future of XFree86

There is more at stake here than simply competition. The big issue is which
group will create *new* "standard extensions" to X11. Having two popular
groups creating and not supporting each other's extensions would be a
disaster. People are not going to boot a different X server to run different apps,
even if it is only a question of switching virtual terminals.

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The Future of XFree86

Posted Mar 28, 2003 19:00 UTC (Fri) by spitzak (guest, #4593) [Link]

They need to write extensions with a library that will use the extension
and EMULATE it when the extension is missing. The emulation can be really
crude (ie draw a colored box the same size as the graphic). As long as
the program works at all and does not crash, people will use the
extension, and the competing versions will be forced to add it.

Xft is an example of an extension where it will use old X fonts (however
badly) when the XRender extension is missing.

Such emulation has been missing from virtually every "extension" for X
ever made. Even the first SHM image extension failed to provide emulation
on old X servers, which is almost inexcusable (since it is trivial)! This
is a serious problem with X and why almost no extensions added since 1989
are in common use (GLX and Xft are the only ones I can think of).