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List:       xfree86-forum
Subject:    Re: [forum] XFree86 modularization
From:       Owen Taylor <otaylor () redhat ! com>
Date:       2003-06-04 21:58:24
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On Mon, 2003-06-02 at 10:27, Egbert Eich wrote:

[...]

>  >  * The easy low hanging fruit for modularization is the apps
>  >    distributed with X. Separate distribution of xauth or
>  >    mkfontdir probably doesn't make sense, but I could imagine:
>  > 
>  >     xterm - separate
>  >     xedit - separate
>  >     xclock, xeyes, texteroids, ... - demos package
>  >     twm,xsm,xclipboard,xdm,xman,xmh ... - classic X desktop package 
>  > 
>  >    How splitty you want to get really depends on how many 
>  >    pieces you have people interested in maintaining separately.
> 
> Yes. In principle we could turn each app into a separate module.
> The build process would allow that. Also it would not be a problem
> to define these modules in CVS so that they can be checked out
> separately while still remaining in the directory structure.
> 
> With proper tagging one could then check out the full tree with
> the latest releases of each module or each module separately.
> 
> Modularization however will be more difficult for the servers. It would be
> useful to place different servers (Xnest, Xvfb, XFree86, XPrint ...)
> into separate modules however they share a lot of common code
> (ie the complete dix).

It's certainly conceivable to do have libdix, libmi, libfb; in
effect have a "X server development kit". And it would no-doubt 
make the code organization of the server easier to understand for a
casual hacker. 

Still, it seems like a lot of work for relatively low gain.

[...]

>  > 
>  >  * Release management becomes more of a coordination effort 
>  >    (do we have tarballs from everybody?) rather than one central
>  >    'cvs tag' 'cvs export'.
>  > 
> 
> Are you suggesting to split the tree into separate repositories?
> I don't think there is anything which we cannot do with proper
> tags/modules in one single CVS repository.

No, I'm suggesting multiple modules in a single repository; 
I'm simply suggesting that the hypothetical xeyes maintainer
would apply the XFREE86_5_6_0 tag when they felt that all
the necessary bugs were fixed, rather than making it something
that had to be done globally.

Regards,
                                      Owen



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