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Author Design of x-window system
Zachary Turner

2007-11-28, 1:25 pm

I need to learn about the design and internals of programming for the
x-window system and I wonder if anyone might be able to recommend a
few good resources. I'm a little new to unix in general and have
never done anything with x-windows. I searched for books and all of
them appear to be very old. However i realize this isn't necessarily
a bad thing since it probably hasn't changed very much.

Suggestions much appreciated,
Thanks
Rob Hoelz

2007-11-28, 1:25 pm

Zachary Turner <divisortheory@gmail.com> wrote:

> I need to learn about the design and internals of programming for the
> x-window system and I wonder if anyone might be able to recommend a
> few good resources. I'm a little new to unix in general and have
> never done anything with x-windows. I searched for books and all of
> them appear to be very old. However i realize this isn't necessarily
> a bad thing since it probably hasn't changed very much.
>
> Suggestions much appreciated,
> Thanks


The Xlib programming series is probably the best resource on
it; especially Volume 0 (X Protocol) and Volume
1 (Xlib programming). Volume 2, the reference for Xlib, might also
come in handy. You can find Volume 1 here:

http://www.sbin.org/doc/Xlib/index_contents.html

And this site has an API reference and an overview of some basics:

http://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/

Also, feel free to e-mail me with any questions you might have; I'll
answer them to the best of my ability.

-Rob Hoelz
Zachary Turner

2007-11-28, 1:25 pm

On Nov 28, 12:00 pm, Rob Hoelz <ho...@wisc.edu> wrote:
> Zachary Turner <divisorthe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> The Xlib programming series is probably the best resource on
> it; especially Volume 0 (X Protocol) and Volume
> 1 (Xlib programming). Volume 2, the reference for Xlib, might also
> come in handy. You can find Volume 1 here:
>
> http://www.sbin.org/doc/Xlib/index_contents.html
>
> And this site has an API reference and an overview of some basics:
>
> http://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/
>
> Also, feel free to e-mail me with any questions you might have; I'll
> answer them to the best of my ability.
>
> -Rob Hoelz


Thanks, this looks like a great starter! I do have some rather
specific questions, but I will save them until I've had some time
learn some of the basics on my own. I've made note of your email
though, I may take you up on the offer sooner or later.

Zach
Boltar

2007-11-29, 1:30 pm

On Nov 28, 6:00 pm, Rob Hoelz <ho...@wisc.edu> wrote:
> Zachary Turner <divisorthe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> The Xlib programming series is probably the best resource on
> it; especially Volume 0 (X Protocol) and Volume
> 1 (Xlib programming). Volume 2, the reference for Xlib, might also
> come in handy. You can find Volume 1 here:
>
> http://www.sbin.org/doc/Xlib/index_contents.html
>
> And this site has an API reference and an overview of some basics:
>
> http://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/


The problem with those books is that they only cover the basic Xlib
protocol. Theres virtually nothing on any extensions , even the
standard ones such as double buffer (rather essential for non openGL
games unless you like lots of flickering).

B2003

Zachary Turner

2007-11-29, 7:21 pm

On Nov 29, 1:22 pm, Boltar <boltar2...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On Nov 28, 6:00 pm, Rob Hoelz <ho...@wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The problem with those books is that they only cover the basic Xlib
> protocol. Theres virtually nothing on any extensions , even the
> standard ones such as double buffer (rather essential for non openGL
> games unless you like lots of flickering).
>
> B2003- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -


I'm actually not necessarily looking to write my own applications,
more like how to do some under-the-hood hacking / hooking of an
existing windowed application. So I think that's probably fine for me.
Scott Lurndal

2007-11-30, 7:24 pm

Zachary Turner <divisortheory@gmail.com> writes:

>I'm actually not necessarily looking to write my own applications,
>more like how to do some under-the-hood hacking / hooking of an
>existing windowed application. So I think that's probably fine for me.


Be aware that there are several "widget" toolkits that provide the
actual look and feel:

Athena Widgets (Comes with X11)
Motif (Archaic)
Qt (Semi-proprietary)
Gtk (Most linux apps use this one)

Whilst they all provide similar capabilities, the actual API's differ
considerably. In particular, while Motif and AW utilize the X
resource manager for look-and-feel configuration, gtk ignores it.

scott
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