[Xorg] Re: Extension Extension

[Jim Gettys]

Søren,

There are a number of other ways in which the current extension
framework is inadequate.

These include:

0) excessive round trips, causing poor startup time.
1) no way to reload an extension (to get new implementations).
2) no way to simultaneously run more than one version of an extension.
3) no way for extensions to come and go (think hotplug of screens,
   coming at us; an extension may only apply to a given screen type,
   for example).
There may be other issues that escape my mind.

Ok, where does this leave us?

a) some stuff can be done to mitigate the current round trip
problems; this can be done with or without an extension extension,
and, for downward compatibility's sake, in an ideal world we'd
do so on older X servers, by yet more internal Xlib batching
trickery (with or without using Xcb).

b) we need to decide whether to tackle all open issues with extensions,
or limit ourselves to those that can be solved even on older X servers
without an extension extension.

                                  - Jim