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2002 FREENIX Track Technical Program - Abstract

XCL : An Xlib Compatibility Layer For XCB

Jamey Sharp and Bart Massey, Computer Science Department, Portland State University

Abstract

The X Window System has provided the standard graphical user interface for UNIX systems for more than 15 years. One result is a large installed base of X applications written in C and C++. In almost all cases, these programs rely on the Xlib library to manage their interactions with the X server. The reference implementation of Xlib is as old as X itself, and has been freely available in source form since its inception: it currently is a part of the XFree86 [xfr] distribution.

Unfortunately, Xlib suffers from a number of implementation issues that have made it unsuitable for some classes of application. Most notably, Xlib is a large body of code. This is of most significance on small platforms such as hand-held computers, where permanent and temporary storage are both limited, but can also have performance disadvantages on any modern architecture due to factors such as cache size. In addition, because of Xlib's monolithic nature, it is difficult to maintain.

The authors' prior work on the X protocol C Binding (XCB) is intended to provide a high-quality but incompatible replacement for Xlib. While XCB is believed to be suitable for most new application and toolkit construction, it is desirable to support the large installed base of legacy code and experience by augmenting XCB with an Xlib-compatible API.

This desire has led to the construction of a new library, the Xlib Compatibility Layer (XCL), that is binary-compatible with frequently-used portions of Xlib while being significantly smaller and easier to maintain. Benefits are demonstrated for both existing and new applications written for Xlib. In particular, the significant share of existing knowledge and written material about Xlib remains applicable to XCL. Also, XCL can significantly ease the migration path from Xlib to XCB.

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Last changed: 16 May 2002 ml
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