Re: XFree86 5.0 TODO

On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 09:27:04PM +0100, Egbert Eich wrote:
> Sven Luther writes:
>  > 
>  > For example, i did originally write the glint/pm3 driver to use the
>  > alpha channel for masking, but no app used it, and finally Alan rewrote
>  > it so that a color key is used, altough you loose one color, thing which
>  > would not have happened when using the alpha channel. You may well
>  > export as many attributes as you like, the apps need to be handling them
>  > all the same, so you have to upgrade the apps to take advantage of it.
>  > 
> This depends. The driver could also provide a short descritive string.
> An application not knowing the attribute could just display this
> string. Also knowing the type and range of the attribute's variable
> it has every information to display a suitable wiget element.
> I agree that there is still the i18n issue. But if the string
> cannot be found in a translation table it is better to display
> an English  string in US-ASCII than nothing.

This would only work if there was some kind of standardization, i am
sure that many drivers have different options for the exact same thing.
Just being able to extend it is not enough, and if no app support it,
then there is no use implementing it.

>  > Finally, we could do what Xv really does, it exports a certain number of
>  > fixed functionality and adds support for additional attributes that can
>  > be queried and such.
>  > 
>  > But again, i don't see what much can be added in this area, apart from
>  > more precise zooms, higher frequency ramdacs, and more additional heads
>  > (like parhelia's 3 headed solution).
> 
> Yes, but take a look at some of the config options certain drivers
> have, some of them could be made configurable at runtime, too.

Yes, almost all of them in fact, but again, all drivers need to use the
same set of keywords, and apps need to actually use it.

> I don't only think about video output drivers but also input drivers.
> So there always may be some attribute you want which doesn't exist.

Mmm, actually we are maybe speaking about two different things. I think
your work is only to pass the attributes to the drivers from the app,
but i was more thinking about a set of functionality that the drivers
provide.

For example, i don't think you can implement the windows zooming thingy
with what you propose. that his, have one viewport/monitor be a zoomed
version of a window, even if we move or resize the window.

Friendly,

Sven Luther
> 
> Egbert.
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