Re: Some perspective from the cheap seats...

David Wexelblat wrote:
> Now, for the questions of "who defines X", this is a very interesting
> question. Formally, officially, X.Org defines X. But as far as most of the
> world can tell, they've abdicated, and so XFree86 de-facto defines X (at the
> moment). Is this how it should be? That's a very important question to be
> answered. XFree86 was never about "defining X". It was about "fix what's
> broken, and support some new devices and platforms". Only relatively
> recently did XFree86 wind up defining X.
> 
> I think it's a VERY important discussion to have. And I hope it's what
> happens in this forum. It is my personal opinion that "defining X" really
> belongs with an organization that enjoys formal standards, verification
> suites, etc. My personal suggestion would be for LSB to take it on. I think
> XFree86 is better left building/fixing X than defining it. But that's my
> opinion, and I don't even use X, so it probably counts for nothing.

X.org is still the place the X standards are defined, and they have in
place formal standards processes, verification suites, and universal
recognition as the official definer of the X standards.  Where things
have fallen down is in publicizing that they have changed since the
old Consortium/early Open Group days and that the standards committees
are now open.  There are a handful of people "from XFree86" who sit on
various committees, but there's not much public participation other
than that.  Unfortunately this has contributed to a small number of
people doing the work in X.org, which results in the standards
processes dragging out for a long time.  For example, the Xinerama
standard is all but done - it's been hammered out, agreed to,
publically reviewed and approved, and is just waiting for a sample
implementation to be done before it's declared finished.  X over IPv6
is about to go to public review as I noted in a previous message, and
work is in progress on other standards, including new extensions for
accessibility.

The X.org executive committee has been discussing ways to deal with the
interlocking problems of lack of public participation and the slow speed
of standards development, and are preparing a proposal to recast the
organization to improve these areas.  David Dawes has been part of this
work, as the XFree86 rep on the executive committee, and changes in the
X.org & XFree86 relationship are included as well.  I've just spoken with
the X.org Chairman, who is working on writing up the various discussions
into a semi-formal proposal, and once that's done (should be within the next
few weeks) he'll be sending a message to this mailing list with more details.

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-      [email protected]
	 Sun Microsystems, Inc.   -   Sun Software Group
	 Quality, Integration, & Customer Success (QICS)
	 Platform Globalization Engin. - X11 Engineering