[ILUG] D11, basically implement X11 server like an os kernel

[Caolan McNamara]

On 05-Aug-99 Sean wrote:
>
>   Know about the MIT Shm extension to X ?
>   if a local machine then use shared mem for talkng rather
>   than over sockets...
>
>   XFree86 4 will also have dga, a more direct faster interface to the
>hardware,
>   a bit like directX under windows.
>   Theres a place on SGI which also talks about glx, using opengl
>hardware access
>   via a window.  NBot using a full screen like quake3 now.


Tsh tsh tsh, i know all about that. Thats not the issue at stake here at all. 
Indeed the Shm extension is a big plus, though i did notice only about a 5% to
6% improvement in my own code in the local case. You have to code it in
specifically, and it only relates to Pixmaps. You still serialize all your
requests, including the requests to the server to use the shm resources. 

The dga and glx stuff is great for games code, and is very useful for full 
screen specialized apps. But im not talking about that either, im talking the 
case of ordinary apps, ones that have no intention of doing heavy duty 3d gaming
 and intend to share screen realestate along with everything else, just ones 
that expect their page to scroll upwards smoothly when they have a scrollbar, or
effeciently update a image when its dragged about a vector package screen. Thats
 the scenario where this sort of implementation make an impact. I know its 
smoothish now, but there are possibilites to speed it up more, and id like to 
look into that possibility along this D11 proposed route.

Another advantage of this is that recompiled apps against D11 get the benefits
immediately. No extensions or modification required, hell you could probably
drop in a replacement shared library, and you wouldn't have to recompile at all.

This is not a X is bad argument, or a call for a specialized extention, just an 
investigation into an interesting implementation / enhancement of an XServer.


C.

>
>Sean.
> .
>
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Real Life: Caolan McNamara           *  Doing: MSc in HCI
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