[Xcb] xlibs --with-xcb unbroken

[Bernardo Innocenti]

Jamey Sharp wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 12, 2005 at 10:29:44AM +0100, Bernardo Innocenti wrote:
> 
>>Jamey Sharp wrote:
>>
>>>The ListFontsWithInfo request in the X protocol is quite unusual, in a
>>>way that makes it difficult to implement. As a result, neither XCB nor
>>>the XCB-based Xlib currently support it. We have a plan for fixing that,
>>>and a fix in Xlib is pretty clearly necessary, but so few applications
>>>use that request that it hasn't been a high priority for me. In fact, I
>>>can only think of three applications with this problem.
>>
>>Any application using Xt is affected, so both xcalc and xclock crash
>>as well as many other legacy applications distributed with X.
> 
> 
> Um... Are you sure? Aren't xterm and Acrobat Reader both Xt users? I
> haven't had any problems like this with either of those. I've tested
> with Netscape Communicator 4 on Sparc Solaris, too, so I think we have
> decent Motif coverage as well.

You were right, xterm, xbiff and xmag all use Xt, but they somehow
work. xclock and xcalc crash.

The difference is that xclock and xcalc create widgets that end up
calling XtCvtStringToFontSet() without a font name.


> The only apps I knew of that use ListFontsWithInfo are xlsfonts and
> xfontsel, IIRC. If just token demo apps don't work, I have a really hard
> time caring.

xlsfonts works, xfontsel dies with the usual assertion failure.


>>>Try fdclock instead. It's prettier and should work just fine. ;-)
>>
>>Yes, works fine and it looks pretty as usual.  Even kcalc and
>>gcalctool do.
> 
> Yeah, the modern toolkits seem fine. They should all be using Xft
> anyway, making this problem *really* obsolete.
> 
> I believe you'll find that even big apps like Mozilla and OpenOffice.org
> have little trouble on Xlib/XCB, and neither do the apps that use
> special features of Xlib, like the various display managers (xdm et al).

Sweat, I'll switch my desktop to use XCB and report any bugs I see.


>>Thank you, I were actually setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but I've just verified
>>that xterm really works when ran as root.  I can't overwrite my libX11 until
>>I get the XCB version to work with basic applications.
> 
> Heh. Yeah, I don't blame you. :-) Actually, I don't recommend
> "overwriting" your existing libX11 at all: I just edit /etc/ld.so.conf
> to list the directory with Xlib/XCB before the directory with an
> official libX11.

I already have /usr/local/xorg/lib there, a CVS build of the monolithic
tree that I use as my default X server...

I keep the experimental modular stuff separated in /usr/local/fdo
because I still couldn't get it to work reliably for everyday use.


> For what it's worth, Xlib/XCB is not currently completely stable. We
> keep seeing occasional assertion failures, and there may well be more
> subtle bugs. I spent a long time trying to track them down, but got
> frustrated and went off to do something else. Josh has gotten to the
> point where he can reproduce the tests I was doing and the bugs I was
> seeing, so I guess we're back to trying to fix things.
> 
> If you want to help, either in tracking down unknown bugs or fixing the
> known ones, that would be great. Let us know how we can help you.

I have little X11 background, but the XCB code is much
easier to read than the ancient stuff...

Well, actually I've found out that the Xt code is quite good too...
I'd never have guessed it from its look & feel ;-)

-- 
  // Bernardo Innocenti - Develer S.r.l., R&D dept.
\X/  http://www.develer.com/