[Xcb] Docs?

[Alan Coopersmith]

On 08/11/14 03:52 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Robert Koretsky writes:
>
>> I don't want to be a developer, nor install the source to get to some simple
>> yet complete documentation on Request and Event functions. I'm also VERY new
>> to C programming, and don't want to write programs that contain the functions
>> that are in the tutorial.
>
> XCB is a very thin layer on top of the X protocol. The documentation you're
> looking for is here
> http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/xproto/x11protocol.html
>
> XCB's function map directly onto the messages and events.
>
> For example, TranslateCoordinates is mapped directly onto the
> xcb_translate_coordinates() function, and the reply message,
> xcb_translate_coordinates_reply_t, is returned by
> xcb_translate_coordinates_reply().
>
> The same convention holds true for all X messages. Additional work is needed to
> handle replies, and events.

And the doxygen generated docs for the C functions for those can be seen at:
http://xcb.freedesktop.org/manual/group__XCB__Core__API.html

or for the various extensions:
http://xcb.freedesktop.org/manual/modules.html

> Finally, neither XCB, nor the X documentation, will actually explain you how the
> X protocol works, aside from the terse documentation for each message. You must
> know how X works, if you don't, you'll be lost. This documentation is for the
> API, it's not an X protocol tutorial. The two are not the same.

And for most programs, you don't want to involve the X protocol & xcb directly.
Higher level toolkits, like Qt & GTK+ solve many problems that you'll face 
trying to write to the low-level interfaces like xcb - especially as a new 
programmer, the higher levels will make much more sense than trying to figure
out what's going into the sausage without getting disgusted or losing a finger.

http://www.x.org/wiki/guide/ tries to explain the basics, but is still a bit
incomplete.

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-              alan.coopersmith at oracle.com
	 Oracle Solaris Engineering - http://blogs.oracle.com/alanc