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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Display technologies in KDE
From:       mosfet <mosfet () mandrakesoft ! com>
Date:       2000-02-10 4:28:28
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Dirk Schönberger wrote:
> 
> > Using a commercial X server that can't be extended is less than
> > interesting to me ;-)
> Somehow XFree didn't like my mainboard/graphics card combo, so I was
> somewhat
> forced to switch. Because I nevertheless understand your opinion, I still
> want to switch back, but only with a new graphics card and/or a new XFree
> version (heard that the new version will use a new driver concept).
> 
> But the problem of different X server implementations with their ranging
> possibilities remains. You don't want to force all these non-Linux /
> none-Intel / non-XFree KDE users
> to switch to a special X server, do you?
> 

Not to a special one, to a free one. I have started working on some Xlib
server-side canvas stuff since getting back from LWE and it will only
work with XFree because that's the only one where I have the sources.
Using standard client-side X(Q)Image code is *slow* because of having to
do copies to update, you'll end up with something around the performance
of the Gnome canvas - which despite the hype is unusable in realtime
stuff. They are even trying to use it for AA fonts in their text editor
and you type a line, wait, type a line, wait, etc... it's just plain
wrong. If you want high performance graphics you *have* to do it in the
server and the only free one is Xfree. There are hacks like MITSHM, but
I have found them to be unsuitable for multiple windows.

That doesn't mean a alternative can't be done in the client for
compatibility with other servers and net usage, but it will be much,
much slower. I am not going to do bad solutions to stay compatible with
closed source, commercial code. I *will* use a MIT license tho, so if
they want to use it they are free to do so.


> Dirk

-- 
Daniel M. Duley - Unix developer & sys admin.
http://www.mosfet.org - The place for KDE development news.
mosfet@mandrakesoft.com
mosfet@kde.org

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