Next-Gen X Window Rendering For Linux

Bytal writes "Seth Nickel, a GNOME hacker, has an extensive treatment of the next generation Linux graphics technologies being worked on by Red Hat and others. For all those complaining about the current X-Windows/X.org server capabilities, things like 'Indiana Jones buttons that puff out smoothly animated clouds of smoke when you click on them,' 'Workspace switching effects so lavish they make Keynote jealous' and even the mundane 'Hardware accelerated PDF viewers' may be interesting."

Comments

Why the complexity?

[johansalk]

"Progress bars made with tendrils of curves that smoothly twist and squirm like a bucket of snakes as the bar grows"

Why? what's wrong with a simple progress bar?!

Let's run through the list, shall we?

[bonch]

"Quartz uses the PDF drawing model for imaging"

"Quartz - Adobe Imaging Model (PDF)"

Quartz - "Display PDF"

"Quartz is Mac OS X's new 2D graphics system based on Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF)."

But perhaps the best source would be Apple itself:
"Based on version 1.4 of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specification the same standard that drives the professional publishing industry Quartz is the name for Panthers revolutionary composited windowing system. Take one glance at the Panther screen and youll see crisp graphics, anti-aliased text, liquid transparency, and photo-realistic drop shadows. The technology behind this unparalleled graphic rendering quality is Quartz.

Uncompromised beauty
Even when you print or save to a PDF file, the Quartz engine makes sure the quality of your image is never compromised. Your PDF file or your printed document retains its transparency and 3-dimensional elements so that it looks just as its supposed to look.

From PostScript to PDF
Using industry-leading PostScript-to-PDF conversion technology, Panther translates Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and PostScript data to high-quality PDF. Because this technology is integrated into Quartz, any Panther application can benefit from it by drawing images on screen from high-resolution PostScript/EPS data instead of low-resolution bitmap. And this also means that you can print PostScript-quality documents on all printers, even on non-PostScript devices by always using hi-res data Panther makes sure your documents always look their best, no matter what printer you use."

Another one from Apple:
"Quartz is a powerful graphics system which forms the foundation of the imaging model for Mac OS X . Quartz offers a sophisticated two-dimensional drawing engine and an advanced windowing environment. Quartz's feature-rich drawing engine leverages the Portable Document Format (PDF) drawing model and offers Mac OS X applications professional-strength drawing functionality. Quartz's windowing services provide low-level functionality like window buffering, event handling/dispatch as well as dynamically creating the translucency and drop shadow effects found in the Aqua user interface."

Re:Let's run through the list, shall we?

[bonch]

And at what point did I say anything to the contrary? You're arguing my own point. Quartz uses the PDF imaging model. The internal representations of the data are not "completely different;" they are very similar and use that Adobe imaging model.

I don't know why some people are trying so hard to convince everyone Quartz isn't using PDF imaging. It is. And by your own words, it is. Quartz uses the PDF document model; it's specifically based on it. In fact, Apple would have used Display Postscript but didn't like Adobe's licensing fees, so they implemented their own license-free PDF 1.4 based technology instead.

Read Apple's own developer documentation for those APIs. Look at the history of the display model technologies (hint: it's an evolution of NeXT's PostScript model).

People are arguing with me by restating my own point. Quartz uses the PDF imaging model. It is based on PDF. End of story. If the object graph of Quartz corresponds so closely to PDF that it translates directly, isn't that just another way of saying it is PDF-based? What's the difference?

I'm not sure I understand the basis for the arguments here. But oh, well.

Re:The opposite of what I want

[Blakey Rat]

Why do you care? Like you said, you already have what you want. So why even post in this topic? Just say, "oh, for people who want eye candy that's nice, let's see what the next story is."

You already have what you want. You don't need to upgrade, you don't need to change. You're in quite the position. On the other hand, some people think that Linux GUIs suck and maybe adding in a little eye candy couldn't possibly make things even worse. Maybe this article is for those people.

I don't know how posts like this get marked "insightful." If the man has what he wants, it's off-topic at best.

How about fixing copy/paste first?

[Money for Nothin']

Rather than worrying about "button smoke" and "lavish workspace switching", why don't the X people worry about the absolute dirt-basic foundational things, like, oh, cut/copy/paste -- which STILL does not work correctly across all windows in X?

Even fucking Windows 3.1 got this right. And where is X? Stuck in an era prior to 3.1, apparently, or, about 15 years behind the times.

I frankly do not give a flying fuck about whether my buttons are lickable or come in the color "Cornflower Blue." I care about *practical* things, like cutting/pasting...