The Future of XFree86
Posted Mar 28, 2003 19:00 UTC (Fri) by
spitzak (guest, #4593)
In reply to:
The Future of XFree86 by josh_stern
Parent article:
The Future of XFree86
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).
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