mike@tslvax.UUCP (Michael J. Tobias) (02/15/90)
I have a few questions relating to the functionality of X Windows.
I would like to hear from others who may be facing similar problems.
Can somebody in the know please let me where to get more information
or respond to the following questions.
1. Can an X server work with two pointing devices and a keyboard?
If so, do any of the toolkits support this or would we need to
write directly to Xlib.
If not, can this be made an extension?
2. Can an X server be written to handle color systems with overlay
planes which will contain much more than a cursor. We make a
graphics controller with 8 image planes and 8 overlay planes and
also one with 24 image planes and 8 overlay planes. How can we
switch between drawing in the image to drawing in the overlay?
Do we just say we are 16 (8+8) or 32 (24+8) bits per pixel?
3. Is it possible to change the screen upon which a window appears
in a multi-screen server. We have boards that can drive up to
four independent displays. I can create windows on each display,
but do not know how to move them from one to the other. Any
suggestions at all on this will help.
4. Can we take advantage of using a system which really does
double buffering in hardware? Our double buffer systems allow
writing in buffer A or B or both and displaying from either A
or B. I don't see how copying pixmaps to drawable windows
really takes advantage of this feature.
5. Is there anybody else interested in seeing any of these features
becoming an extension if they do not already exist?
By the way, great job on speeding up X11R4.
Michael Tobias UUNET: uunet!ucf-cs!tslvax!mike
Tech-Source, Inc.
442 S. North Lake Blvd. Suite 1008
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
(407) 830-8301rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (02/21/90)
1. Can an X server work with two pointing devices and a keyboard?
The core protocol only handles one pointer and one keyboard, but in R4
you will find a draft standard for a protocol extension to handle a variety
of additional input devices, and a sample implementation.
If so, do any of the toolkits support this or would we need to
write directly to Xlib.
I am not aware of any public toolkits supporting this kind of functionality yet.
2. Can an X server be written to handle color systems with overlay
planes which will contain much more than a cursor.
Yes, several vendors have done this. There is at present no standard X
interface for overlay functionality, although there is recent progress in
this area.
How can we switch between drawing in the image to drawing in the overlay?
Not a simple question. Several different strategies have been proposed.
Do we just say we are 16 (8+8) or 32 (24+8) bits per pixel?
Almost certainly not.
3. Is it possible to change the screen upon which a window appears
in a multi-screen server.
The core protocol does not support this. I suppose you could define an
extension to support it.
4. Can we take advantage of using a system which really does
double buffering in hardware?
Take a look at the draft standard for multi-buffering which exists in R4.
5. Is there anybody else interested in seeing any of these features
becoming an extension if they do not already exist?
Look before you Leap.