[cairo] cairo design

[Keith Packard]

Around 11 o'clock on Apr 23, Jon Smirl wrote:

> Would it be fair to say that Cairo is an immediate mode API designed to fix
> exactly with SVG's retained mode model? So an SVG implementation on Cairo
> should be easy.

SVG is certainly one of the primary targets, along with PDF 1.4.  We're 
using the SVG test suite to test cairo and Mozilla is using cairo for it's 
SVG implementation.

> I'm still poking around in the Cairo code and I haven't found display lists.
> Does Cairo support display lists? They're important for elminating a lot of net
> traffic on remote links.

Cairo (currently) offers only an immediate mode interface.  It's not that 
I'm opposed to a stored mode interface, but experience has led me to 
first provide an immediate mode interface and try to make that fast enough 
without requiring applications to deal with the mess of a stored mode 
interface.

> Is there a wire protocol for remoting Cairo?

Nope; it's an API, not a network service.  You can glue a network protocol 
above the SVG level, or take advantage of the existing X/GLX protocols.

-keith


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