Re: Why run xserver on the OpenGL API?

--- Keith Packard <[email protected]> wrote:
> > 2) With OpenGL under xserver all windows will always have the OpenGL API
> > available. xlib can slowly phased out. OpenGL is a well designed API
> suitable of
> > the next 10 years. 
> 
> I'm not sure this is desirable; with the 2D Render API sitting atop GL 
> where GL is available, having apps use that API will still let us run 
> reasonably fast software implementations, Mesa still has a lot of 
> overhead, especially on machines with limited CPU performance (or a lack 
> of an FPU, like arm machines).
> 
Limited machines could just continue to use the existing xlib API and existing
xservers.

What you don't want to do is make OpenGL an option in the new desktop servers.
If it is a known fact that OpenGL will be in every freedesktop xserver no matter
what the hardware, then apps will get written to use it. But if OpenGL is an
option, few people will write to it - that's the state we're in right now.
Instead they will stick with the 'standard' xlib API because it will be more
'compatible'. Every window created on the xserver needs to support OpenGL from
day one.

Apps that are targeted to tiny machines will use xlib. freedesktop xserver will
of course support xlib as a compatility mode. Besides, whose to say that we
won't see OpenGL on tiny machines, that's what EmbeddedGL is all about. keithw
can give us some size numbers for EmbeddedGL.

Even if we shipped a fully OpenGL enabled xserver today it will still take years
for a significant number of apps to get converted. Converting toolkits to OpenGL
will be a big help. But we need to get the full 3D conversion in motion since we
don't want to end up five years from now with all MS apps converted and nothing
happening on Linux. The decision to convert the industry to 3D hardware has
already been made (because of MS); we just have to decide if Linux to going to
take advantage of it.



=====
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl-/[email protected]

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