[newbie] Documentation?

Gregg Reynolds dev at arabink.com
Sun Nov 27 01:32:18 PST 2005


Hi list,

I've only recently begun digging into the details of the X server.  The
best doco I've found amounts to:

	"Definition of the Porting Layer for the X v11 Sample Server"
	(http://www.xfree86.org/current/ddx.pdf)

and

	"Strategies for Porting the X v11 Sample Server
	(http://www.msu.edu/~huntharo/xwin/docs/xwindows/strat.pdf)

I notice that neither of these is available (or at least not easily so)
on the x.org site.  They're also quite old.

Can anyone here fill me in on just how trustworthy these docs are today?
 Or, are there better docs available that cover the internals of the X
Sample Server?

I've begun taking notes on the internal architecture of the server,
based mostly on those 2 docs and the source code.  I wonder if there is
a perceived need for a kind of "X Server Internal Architecture"
document.  Personally, I would like to see something like that, somewhat
similar to the 2 docs mentioned above, but a little more high-level.  By
that I mean discussing the server architecture both in terms of the
problems various features are designed to solve, and doing so in terms
of e.g. Service Categories rather than "layers" or particular functions.
 The audience would be experienced programmers, both those who just
want some idea of how an X server works, and those who need to extend it
or write a driver for it.

What say ye, list?  Would it be useful to anybody other than me?  Are
there people who would be willing to contribute?   (Everything under a
free license, natch.)

(FYI:  Yes, I do have wild and crazy ideas about a few server
enhancements/extentions, which is why I'm digging into this.  But I find
also that the code is pretty clean and the docs - if you can find them -
are pretty informative, so it's kinda interesting just to see how it all
works.)

Thanks,

-gregg



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