Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: State of Linux graphics | From | David Reveman <> | Date | Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:26:53 -0400 |
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On Tue, 2005-08-30 at 12:03 -0400, Jon Smirl wrote: > I've written an article that surveys the current State of Linux > graphics and proposes a possible path forward. This is a long article > containing a lot of detailed technical information as a guide to > future developers. Skip over the detailed parts if they aren't > relevant to your area of work. > > http://www.freedesktop.org/~jonsmirl/graphics.html > > Topics include the current X server, framebuffer, Xgl, graphics > drivers, multiuser support, using the GPU, and a new server design. > Hopefully it will help you fill in the pieces and build an overall > picture of the graphics landscape. > > The article has been reviewed but if it still contains technical > errors please let me know. Opinions on the content are also > appreciated. >
As the author of Xgl and glitz I'd like to comment on a few things.
>From the article:
> Xgl was designed as a near term transition solution. The Xgl model > was to transparently replace the drawing system of the existing > X server with a compatible one based on using OpenGL as a device > driver. Xgl maintained all of the existing X APIs as primary APIs. > No new X APIs were offered and none were deprecated. .. > But Xgl was a near term, transition design, by delaying demand for > Xgl the EXA bandaid removes much of the need for it.
I've always designed Xgl to be a long term solution. I'd like if whatever you or anyone else see as not long term with the design of Xgl could be clarified.
We already had a new drawing API for X, the X Render extension. Xgl is the first server to fully accelerate X Render.
> Linux is now guaranteed to be the last major desktop to implement a > desktop GUI that takes full advantage of the GPU.
I'm not certain of that.
> In general, the whole concept of programmable graphics hardware is > not addressed in APIs like xlib and Cairo. This is a very important > point. A major new GPU feature, programmability is simply not > accessible from the current X APIs. OpenGL exposes this > programmability via its shader language.
That's just because we haven't had the need to expose it yet. I don't see why this can't be exposed through the Render extension. The trickier part is to figure out how we should expose it through the cairo API but that's not an X server design problem.
-David
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