Re: protocol enhancements

On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 16:18, [email protected] wrote:
> > Sender: [email protected]
> > From: David Dawes <[email protected]>
> > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 10:50:15 -0500
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: [forum] protocol enhancements
> > -----
> > 
> > I also think that bumping
> > the protocol minor revision should be explored as a backward-compatible
> > mechanism for enhancing the core protocol.  For those who don't
> > know, the X11 protocol has a so-far unused provision for a
> > client/server protocol handshake, and this type of detail can be
> > embedded in Xlib.  There's no need to go to "X12" to do this, or
> > to keep tacking on miscellaneous extensions to deal with what are
> > core protocol issues.
> > 
> 
> Yes, the core protocol needs work.  Deeper pixels seem *far* more urgent 
> to me than the coordinate space, and something most people will see much 
> sooner than display walls of size and resolution that the coordinate space 
> is an issue.  There, it is within the next doubling time: e.g. right around 
> the corner. Most people already have 32 bits/pixel.

I'm allways baffeled by why retaining the protocol as a first class
citizen in the server is such a high priority. For new developers who
wants to work with the internals of the X server, the protocol itself
can be THE major roadstopper for them to even producing any interesting
enhancement to the rendering pipeline.

Understanding the protocol takes a few weeks. Working on the protocol
takes a few months. Understanding the procotol and all its irky details
and shortcomings takes a lifetime.

What is the problem with a new protocol, where the rendering model is
not part of the protocol (which is really how the protocol should have
been in the first place), or a direct rendering windowing system, with
optional protocol support, as long as there is a backward compatible X11
module, which can accept connections at port 6000?

One can put up protocol compatibility as a very high priority, but
allways starting a reply to someone wanting to work on server internals
with: "It's possible to do this without breaking the protocol...".

-- 
Torgeir Veimo <[email protected]>