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New X Roadmap from Jim Gettys
A reader points to a roadmap on freedesktop.org that provides a good summary of what is out there for *nix desktops, with emphasis on X but also covering some other areas.
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For anyone that doesn't know:
The Xouvert Project
has been set up to help develop experimental extensions to X in an open way, using Free Software.
(It's not a competing X implementation, it is assistance).
(Jim didn't mention this in his paper)
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
If an X users doesn't need network transparency, chances are very high that she doesn't use any code that is network transparency related -- this is the current default, after all.
In such situations, X applications communicate with the graphics subsystem over shared memory, just like in Windows. The difference is that the graphics subsystem is not part of the kernel but in user-space, and is called a server in tech jargon.
So, now that we have already what you want -- can you please step back and let the knowledgable people improve X at those places where it would really matter?
Joachim
People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]
Umm, X's clipboard does work in a universal alt-c/alt-p type way (although some programs do have different bindings, e.g. ctrl-c/ctrl-p).
You are aware that the selection/middle-mouse buffer is not the clipboard at all, right? There is a completely seperate and proper clipboard, which is why most programs have Edit->Copy/Paste menu entries. People do tend to get confused and think the selection buffer is the same as the clipboard. IT IS NOT.
Chris "Ng" Jones
cmsj@tenshu.net
www.tenshu.net
This is a work in progress.
I wasn't expecting it to get slashdotted.
Roadmaps show you where you were, where you are, and maybe where you are going.
I plan to do more on where things are going...
And it would be good if other projects did roadmaps of their own projects.