[compiz] "Which version should I use?"

[Sam Spilsbury]

Hi,

On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 3:28 AM, Kristian Lyngstøl
<kristian at bohemians.org> wrote:
>
> Feature-wise, Compiz 0.9.12.0 actually has fewer features as I understand it. With the move to OpenGL ES, several plugins got dropped. I understand some of that has been remedied, but 0.9 still does not come out ahead if my understanding is correct. I have asked around and this is what I've been told, and it matches what I see. As far as I am concerned, OpenGL ES is not a priority.
>
> So to sum up: Equal stability, fewer features, but actively maintained.
>
> In the end I told the user in question that 0.9.12.0 is the latest stable version, but 0.8.9 has more features and is as stable.

I'm aware of a fork called Fusilli[2] that is a continuation of 0.8
with some redundant features removed.

Otherwise, if I were to give an objective assessment of 0.9, I'd say
that with the right skill set moving the older plugins over to using
modern OpenGL is not particularly hard. Probably one of the hardest
was the blur plugin and that only took me a day or two[3]. The three
biggest changes to rendering were
 1. The move to triangle-based meshes as opposed to relying on quads.
 2. The move from assembly fragment programs to GLSL.
 3. The move to using SwapBuffers (with GLX_EXT_buffer_age) as opposed
to CopySubBuffer.

1 & 2 are API-incompatible changes. 3 is a change that silently
exposes bugs in existing plugins, usually relating to a failure to
indicate update regions on the screen.

In terms of Wayland, I'd honestly recommend look into using something
like libweston and putting a "compiz plugins" compatibility layer on
top of it. That all depends on what compiz plugins actually rely on
from core, but for about 90% of them, not much. Having a GLES
compatible codebase also helps there too, if that's a road one feels
like going down.

[2] https://github.com/noodlylight/fusilli
[3] https://code.launchpad.net/~smspillaz/compiz/compiz.feature_1069112.blur
>
> [1] http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2009-February/003284.html
>
> - Kristian
>
> _______________________________________________
> compiz mailing list
> compiz at lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/compiz
>



-- 
Sam Spilsbury