oj@apollo.COM (Ellis Oliver Jones) (11/15/88)
Prentice-Hall, Inc. announces the publication of an introductory
book on the X Window System.
Introduction to the X Window System by Oliver Jones.
The X Window System was developed by Robert W. Scheifler of M.I.T.'s
Laboratory for Computer Science and a host of other contributors.
Current X development activities are being carried out under
the auspices of the MIT X Consortium.
X is a network-transparent portable windowing system for
engineering workstations. Because interactive applications written for X
can run on a wide variety of hardware from superworkstations to
personal computers, X is gaining wide acceptance as a base window
system.
Description and Contents of the Book:
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This book is written for the professional application developer
who will use X, and for the student who wishes to learn about
the motivations for and capabilities of the X Window System.
It describes how to use Xlib, the "C" language interface to the
X Window System. Many figures and code examples are provided,
as well as an extensive index. The book is 511 pages long,
and is cross-referenced to the "official" X documentation.
Table of Contents:
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1. Introduction
The X Environment -- The X Window System's Goals -- Using X --
Programming X -- Using this book
2. Hello, World!
What helloworld.c Does -- An Outline of helloworld.c -- helloworld.c
Dissected -- Building and Running helloworld.c -- Structuring
an X Window System Application
3. X Concepts
The X Network Protocol -- The Xlib Procedural Interface -- The Display
Connection -- Resources -- Events -- Error Handling -- Summary
4. Windows
Windows and the Desktop Model -- Windows Made Simple -- Window
Configuration -- Attributes and Characteristics -- Advanced Window
Manipulation -- Window Manager Interactions -- Window Sizing Strategies --
Notification Events -- Summary
5. Graphics
The Graphics Pipeline -- Graphics Contexts -- Manipulating GC
Resources -- Drawing -- Expose Events -- Clearing Windows --
Copying Areas -- Advanced Drawing Techniques -- Workstation
Performance -- Drawing Size -- Summary
6. Text
Fonts -- Simple Font Selection -- Drawing Character Strings -- Font
Structures -- Searching for Fonts -- 16-bit Character Strings --
Summary
7. Color
Color Concepts -- Workstation Capabilities -- Strategies: Shared
Color Cells; Standard Color Maps; Private Color Cells -- Service
Functions -- Monochrome and Gray Scale -- Color Map Manipulation --
Summary
8. Pixmaps, Bitmaps, and Images
Pixmap Resources -- Bitmaps -- Images -- Summary
9. The Mouse and Pointer
Mouse-Handling Strategies -- Pointer Control -- Cursors
Mouse Events -- Summary
10. The Keyboard
Keyboard Events -- Keycodes, Keymaps, Keysyms, and Text --
Keyboard Focus -- Controlling the Keyboard -- Summary
11. Advanced Event Handling
Polling the Queue -- Event Compression -- Multiple
Display Connections -- Putting Back and Sending Events --
Grabbing the Pointer -- Grabbing Mouse Buttons --
Grabbing the Keyboard -- Grabbing Individual Keys --
Synchronous Delivery of Grabbed Events -- Passive
Grab Activation -- Summary
12. Communicating Between Applications
Cut Buffers -- Properties -- Selections -- Summary
Appendix A. helloworld.c
Appendix B. X Protocol Request Codes
Appendix C. Latin-1 and Standard Keysysms
Appendix D. Fonts
Appendix E. Color Names
Appendix F. Standard Cursor Shapes and Symbols
Appendix G. Predefined Atoms
Index
Availability:
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The book was published on November 4th with a 1989 copyright
date, and is for sale in "better bookstores," The suggested
retail price is $24. Quantum in Cambridge has it in stock
as of this afternoon, and Computer Literacy in San Jose
expects a shipment shortly.
ISBN 0-13-499997-5
If you prefer, you may order directly from the publisher.
To order fewer than twenty copies, pleae call 201-767-5937.
Order for multiple copies are, of course, welcome.
Please call 201-767-2498 to order twenty or more copies.
Author:
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Oliver Jones is a Graphics Software Engineer at Apollo Computer,Inc.
He has contributed to several graphic software systems. In the
process of preparing this book he has presented tutorials at USENIX Summer'88
and SIGGRAPH'88, as well as the 1988 X Symposium at M.I.T.
"X Window System" is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Oliver Jones (speaking for myself, not necessarily for Apollo Computer, Inc.)