clarification requested: apparent termination of xrx project due to deletion of lbx from xorg

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Alan Coopersmith
<alan.coopersmith at sun.com> wrote:
> Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:

 hi alan, thanks for responding.

> xrx does not run an X server - it just allows embedding of a remote X
> app in a web browser running on an existing X server.

 _great_.  that's exactly what i need.

>> this will therefore work in webkit, safari, firefox, netscape, and
>> anything else that supports the NPAPI plugin architecture.
>
> If the machine was already running an X server and was configured to
> have the xrx plugin set up in their browser and allowed random X client
> connections from the internet, the combination of requirements which
> very few machines ever really met.

 linux systems run x-servers (which is what i'm interested in).  they
don't run xrx because it's broken.  i assume, once being able to run
xrx, it's possible to set things up so that the only X clients allowed
access will be on 127.0.0.1?

 so - i'm interested in writing a window manager, in javascript, to
run on linux systems, where the web browser (running this javascript
implementation of a window manager) _is_ the window manager.


>> ... except... it won't, will it?  because, according to the above
>> message, xproxymngproto support has been destroyed, thanks
>> to the removal of lbx support.
>
> Destroyed?  No - all the sources are still downloadable and buildable,
> they're just no longer a core part of the window system, nor actively
> maintained.

 ahh.... xserver has had LBX _removed_ from
xserver/include/dix-config.h.in - you have to go back to.... 2006(?)
to find a version of xserver that has it.

 i really don't want to have to go back to X11R7 as it will be very
painful, and lose all of the recent benefits like x-composite.

>> please can someone clarify that i have this right: that a particularly
>> interesting and exciting line of possibilities for desktop
>> development, hosted by the "free desktop organisation", has been
>> terminated by the xorg developers.
>
> The "free" in freedesktop doesn't mean we're going to do everything
> you want for free - X.Org is severely constrained by the number of
> people who are stepping up to actually do the work,

 *sigh*.  y'know.... there's a reason why proprietary software
development gets ahead so damn far of free software.

> and we thus have
> trimmed less used and needed parts of the tree from the sets we're
> committing to maintain.   If you need one of those parts, then you
> can contribute your time to maintaining it - we're still hosting the
> code trees and releases, even if they're not a core part of the
> X Window System releases any more.

 i'll see if i can hack what i want, from the lead shown by xrx.  it
_may_ be something as simple as removing the "exec xnest" and
replacing it with ("exec %s", args) which i'm about to find out, in a
bit.

if that really really doesn't cut it then i'll look at reintroducing
lbx into xserver by going through the code where it was last removed,
and see if it can be built as an optional extension, like glx etc.

l.