FOSDEM09: RandR 1.3 and multimedia processing extensions for X

AFAIK, in theory at least, RandR 1.2 supported not panning, but specifying
the viewport location. At least xrandr had parameters for it. It is/was
thus possible (in theory) to use xrandr (my usage was in a script) to set
the viewport to wherever one wanted it, and one could (in theory)
programatically pan by repeatedly invoking said script or application to
move X and Y pixels.

You'll note the "in theory"s however. Apparently not all video drivers
implemented the settable viewport functionality. The resolution change
and virtual size functions of my xrandr invoking script worked just fine,
but I've never been able to get the viewport parameters to work -- xrandr
takes them -- they just don't do anything. When the resolution is set
below the maximum virtual size, the viewport stays nailed to the top left
corner, no matter /what/ position parameters I give xrandr. This is with
xf86-video-ati, 6.9 and 6.10 at least, and I think I tried it with 6.8 but
that was far enough back IDR for sure, on a Radeon 9200SE AGP with dual
outputs, DVI-I and VGA, formerly running dual 22" CRT analog monitors in
1600x1200 stacked for 1600x2400, now running dual 24" LCDs 1920x1200
stacked for 1920x2400. (Yes, I need to upgrade video cards.)

Thus I could change resolution with the orientation staying correct, but
for the most part it wasn't of much use since all I could see at the lower
resolutions was the top left corner of the screen, no matter where I told
it to put the viewport. Still, I was able to work around that problem to
split-resolution top and bottom to play the only piece of proprietaryware
I have left, Master of Orion original DOS edition (1993 update copyright),
full-screen (single-screen) in DOSBOX at 640x480, while keeping the other
screen normal resolution to run my ksysguard graphs and a music player,
etc. That worked even tho I couldn't pan, because I could use kwin's
absolute positioning options to put dosbox/orion right under the 640x480
viewport of the one screen, while keeping the other at normal resolution.