From: peter@transvirtual.com
Date: Wed Jan 06 1999 - 19:25:36 EST
On Thu, 07 Jan 1999, Godmar Back wrote:
>So that's an optimization then that can't implemented in a way that's
>Xlib independent?
No straight forward, since you have to store the pixels in an X image.
> I don't even pretend to understand all the issues here, but then why do we
>need this Toolkit interface anyway?
Synchronization. The native methods could also be in the caller, but you would
have to sync on the same object, anyway.
>Is it suboptimal for only Xproto, is it suboptimal for a hybrid, or is it
>already suboptimal for the current natives approach?
For anyting trying to avoid native methods (accessing Graphics, images and the
like).
>What would be wrong with subdividing it in different interfaces
>corresponding to windowing, event handling, image routines, etc.?
>Essentially, what's now subdivided in the different .c files in awt/X?
The current subdivision is just a categorization (reflects mainly the caller),
but that's different with other native layers (which have to do some windowing,
clipping implementation etc.)
>Should users be able to replace their own toolkit, like you could with
>Sun's? I don't think that we must support that ability.
Replacing the Toolkit (which mainly means replacing the native layer) is
a really heavy thing. Trying to do this with the JDK ends up in something more
complex than what we have now. Portability ends here.
>If the toolkit interface is an inconvenient bottleneck without benefits
>why not get rid of it in favor of one or more interfaces that's better suited?
If you need synchronization (because you don't have it on the native side), and
if you need to interface via JNIed native methods, it is the fastest way to go
(these are static methods). The ideal solution would be to map the graphics
primitives like drawLine directly to the graphics engine, but that's really too
ideal (at least for other operations).
>For your GRX port, did you find that the Toolkit interface was appropriate?
Not just GRX, others as well.
-- Peter
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