[PATCH] First round of updates for X11R7.6 release notes
Alan Coopersmith
alan.coopersmith at oracle.com
Thu Nov 4 00:05:11 PDT 2010
Signed-off-by: Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersmith at oracle.com>
---
general/ReleaseNotes.xml | 344 +++++++++++++++++++---------------------------
1 files changed, 139 insertions(+), 205 deletions(-)
HTML formattted output incorporating these changes has been posted to:
http://people.freedesktop.org/~alanc/7.6-draft-ReleaseNotes.html
Summarizing a year's worth of changes down to highlights that are visible
to users or important to builders/packagers is hard.
Please let me know if you see anything that should be mentioned that I missed,
anything I deleted that I shouldn't have, anything I described poorly, or
anything else in general that should be changed.
There are no updates yet to the credits list - I need to run the scripts
to gather that data from the git repos still, so ignore those for now.
Also, the HTML output is not the prettiest in the world. Stylesheet patches
will also be considered if you think you can make it look better. (The XSL
& CSS stylesheets used can be found in the xorg-sgml-doctools module.)
diff --git a/general/ReleaseNotes.xml b/general/ReleaseNotes.xml
index 3bec5de..eb02510 100644
--- a/general/ReleaseNotes.xml
+++ b/general/ReleaseNotes.xml
@@ -86,10 +86,11 @@
</para>
<para>
- We encourage you to submit bug fixes and enhancements to
+ We encourage you to report bugs using
freedesktop.org's <ulink url="https://bugs.freedesktop.org/">
bug tracking system</ulink> using the xorg product, and to
- discuss them on <email>xorg at lists.freedesktop.org</email>.
+ submit bug fixes and enhancements to
+ <email>xorg-devel at lists.x.org</email>.
More details on patch submission and review process are available on the
<ulink
url="http://www.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/SubmittingPatches">
@@ -100,7 +101,7 @@
The release numbering is based on the original MIT X numbering system.
X11 refers to the version of the network protocol that the X Window
system is based on: Version 11 was first released in 1988 and has been
-stable for 21 years, with only upward compatible additions to the core X
+stable for 22 years, with only upward compatible additions to the core X
protocol, a record of stability envied in computing. Formal releases of
X started with X version 9 from MIT; the first commercial X products
were based on X version 10. The MIT X Consortium and its successors,
@@ -156,82 +157,52 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- <firstterm>Multi-Pointer X (<acronym>MPX</acronym>)</firstterm>
- provides the user with multiple independent mouse cursors and
- multiple independent keyboard foci. Each cursor is a true system
- cursor and different pointers can operate in multiple applications
- simultaneously.
+ <firstterm>Xorg configuration directories</firstterm> are
+ used to allow fragments of the X server configuration to be
+ delivered in individual files. For instance, the input device
+ driver matching rules previously provided in HAL
+ <filename>.fdi</filename> files are now provided as
+ <filename>.conf</filename> files in a
+ <filename>xorg.conf.d</filename> directory.
</para>
</listitem>
+
<listitem>
<para>
- <firstterm>Input device properties</firstterm> allow you to attach
- properties to a device. These properties can be of arbitrary type
- and can be changed without the server having to know their details.
+ <firstterm>udev</firstterm> is now used by the X server on
+ Linux systems for input device discovery and hot-plug
+ notification. Other platforms continue to use the HAL
+ framework for these tasks for now.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The <firstterm>X Input Extension version 2.0
- (<acronym>XI2</acronym>)</firstterm> is designed to
- replace both core input processing and prior
- versions of the X Input Extension. Besides MPX, it provides a
- number of other enhancements over version 1.5, including:
- <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
-
- <listitem><para>use of XGE and GenericEvents.</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>explicit device hierarchy of master and slave devices.</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>the ability for devices to change capabilities at runtime.</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>raw device events</para></listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <firstterm>X protocol C-language Binding (XCB)</firstterm>
+ is now included in the katamari, and is required by several
+ client-side modules, including
+ <systemitem class="library">libX11</systemitem>,
+ <command>xlsatoms</command>, <command>xlsclients</command>
+ and <command>xwininfo</command>.
+
+ XCB is a replacement for Xlib featuring a small footprint,
+ latency hiding, direct access to the protocol, improved threading
+ support, and extensibility. More information can be found on
+ the XCB website at <ulink url="http://xcb.freedesktop.org/" />.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <firstterm>Resize, Rotate and Reflect Extension
- (<acronym>RANDR</acronym>) version 1.3</firstterm>
- builds on the changes made with version 1.2 and adds some new
- capabilities without fundmentally changing the extension again.
- The following features are added in this version:
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Projective Transforms</term>
- <listitem><para>
- The implementation work for general rotation support made
- it trivial to add full projective transformations. These
- can be used to scale the screen up/down as well as perform
- projector keystone correct or other effects.
- </para></listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Panning</term>
- <listitem><para>
- Panning was removed with RandR 1.2 because the old
- semantics didn't fit any longer. With RandR 1.3 panning
- can be specified per crtc.
- </para></listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <firstterm><acronym>DRI2</acronym> extension</firstterm>
- is designed to associate and access auxillary rendering
- buffers with an X drawable. It is a essentially a helper
- extension to support implementation of direct rendering
- drivers/libraries/technologies.
- The first consumer of this extension is a direct
- rendering OpenGL driver, but the DRI2 extension is not
- designed to be OpenGL specific. Work is underway to
- utilize DRI2 for the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix
- (<acronym>VPDAU</acronym>) as well. Direct rendering
- implementations of OpenVG, Xv, cairo and other graphics
- APIs should find the functionality exposed by this
- extension helpful and hopefully sufficient.
+ Major progress has been made on the X.Org Documentation
+ modernization - most of the library and protocol specifications
+ are now included in the modules for those libraries and protocols
+ so they can be updated in sync with new versions, and many have
+ been converted to DocBook XML from the variety of formats they
+ were previously in. On most systems these documents will be
+ installed under <filename>/usr/share/doc/</filename>. They
+ are also posted on the X.Org website at
+ <ulink url="http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/" />.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -764,27 +735,6 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
</sect3>
<sect3>
- <title>XAA</title>
-
- <para>
- The XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA) was completely rewritten
- from scratch for XFree86 4.x and is used in X11R&relvers;.
- Most drivers implement acceleration by making use of the XAA module.
- </para>
- </sect3>
-
- <sect3>
- <title>EXA</title>
-
- <para>
- EXA was created as a new driver acceleration architecture to
- replace XAA. EXA was designed specifically to accelerate Render
- operations. This release features improved driver support for EXA.
- See the individual driver changelogs for details.
- </para>
- </sect3>
-
- <sect3>
<title>Multi-head</title>
<para>
@@ -809,7 +759,8 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<sect3>
<title>Xinerama</title>
<para>
- Xinerama is an X server extension that allows multiple physical screens
+ <firstterm>Xinerama</firstterm> is an X server extension that
+ allows multiple physical screens connected to multiple video devices
to behave as a single screen. With traditional multi-head in X11,
windows cannot span or cross physical screens. Xinerama removes this
limitation. Xinerama does, however, require that the physical screens
@@ -819,8 +770,9 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<para>
Xinerama is not enabled by default, and can be enabled with the
- <option>+xinerama</option> command line option for the
- X server.
+ <option>+xinerama</option> command line option for the X server.
+ Note that enabling Xinerama may disable certain other extensions
+ which are not compatible with Xinerama.
</para>
</sect3>
@@ -960,8 +912,8 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<para>
Details about the font support in X11R&relvers; can be
- found in the <ulink url="fonts/fonts.html">README.fonts</ulink>
- document.
+ found in the <quote><ulink url="fonts/fonts.html"
+ >Fonts in X11R&relvers;</ulink></quote> document.
</para>
<sect3>
@@ -972,8 +924,8 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<filename class="directory">lib/X11/fonts</filename> subdirectory
of the X installation directory (for instance, in X11R6 releases,
<filename class="directory">/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</filename>
- was commonly used). This release changes the default installation
- path to the <filename class="directory">fonts</filename>
+ was commonly used). This release uses the default installation
+ path of the <filename class="directory">fonts</filename>
subdirectory of the <varname>datadir</varname> setting from the
GNU autoconf configuration. For instance, if the fonts are
configured with <userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput>,
@@ -1064,37 +1016,83 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<title>New configure options for font modules</title>
<para>
- Several new options have been added to the configure scripts
- for font modules in this release. See the
- <link linkend="font">Font support</link> section of this document
- for details of the
- <option>--with-fontrootdir=<parameter>PATH</parameter></option>
- and
- <option>--with-compression=<parameter>TYPE</parameter></option>
- options.
+ The bitmap font modules now accept a configure option of
+ <option>--disable-all-encodings</option> to set the default for
+ all encodings to off, requiring builders to then pass
+ <option>--enable-<replaceable><encoding></replaceable></option>
+ flags for each encoding to be built.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
- <title>Changes to extension headers</title>
+ <title>New configure options for documentation in modules</title>
<para>
- The C language header files for a number of X11 protocol
- extensions were refactored in this release to better split the
- protocol definitions and the client library definitions.
- Efforts were made to retain compatibility for existing
- software, but use of some headers may now trigger warnings
- suggesting including new or more appropriate headers instead.
- </para>
- <para>
- Since these changes were made to files in both the
- <literal>proto</literal> and <literal>lib</literal>
- modules for each extension, builders upgrading individual
- modules will have to update these modules in unison to avoid
- breaking builds of software using the headers from these modules.
+ As many more modules now contain documentation to be converted
+ from DocBook XML to text, HTML, PostScript and/or PDF formats,
+ new standard options have been added to the configure macros
+ to control the build of these in the modules.
</para>
- </sect2>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--with-xmlto=<parameter>yes|no</parameter></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables or disables use of the <ulink
+ url="https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/"
+ ><command>xmlto</command></ulink> command to translate
+ DocBook XML to other formats. All DocBook XML conversions
+ require use of this command.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--with-fop=<parameter>yes|no</parameter></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables or disables use of the <ulink
+ url="http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/"
+ ><command>fop</command></ulink> command to translate
+ DocBook XML to PostScript and PDF formats.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--enable-docs=<parameter>yes|no</parameter></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables or disables the build and installation of all
+ documentation targets except traditional man pages.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--enable-devel-docs=<parameter>yes|no</parameter></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables or disables the build and installation of documentation
+ for developers of the X.Org software modules.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--enable-specs=<parameter>yes|no</parameter></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enables or disables the build and installation of the
+ formal specification documents for protocols and APIs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
</sect1>
@@ -1146,28 +1144,6 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
</para>
</sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Composite exposes extra visuals</title>
-
- <para>
- When the Composite extension is enabled, a new visual is
- created. This visual is different from the other visuals used by X
- applications in that it includes an alpha component. It is used by
- the compositing manager and other Composite aware applications.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Most X applications ignore this visual since it is not useful to
- them; however some applications mistakenly try to use it, which
- will cause them to fail. An environment variable,
- <envar>XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS</envar>,
- was added to the X11 library to hide this visual from applications
- that mistakenly try to use it. If an application fails only when
- the Composite is enabled, try setting this environment variable
- before starting the application.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -1201,12 +1177,13 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<ulink url="XDGA.3.man">XDGA(3)</ulink> man page. DGA should be
considered deprecated; if you are relying on it, please let us
know what you need it for so we can find better solutions.
+ In this release, support has been removed for all DGA
+ rendering and mapping code, leaving just mode setting and
+ raw input device access.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- <variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Input device discovery via HAL</term>
<listitem>
@@ -1217,26 +1194,15 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
receive notification of hotplug events for them, and to
retrieve configuration parameters for them. The HAL
maintainers have deprecated HAL, so the X.Org developers
- are investigating alternatives. As a result, configuration
- of input devices via HAL <filename>*.fdi</filename> files
- may not be supported in future Xorg server releases.
+ have begun replacement with alternatives. As a result,
+ configuration of input devices via HAL
+ <filename>*.fdi</filename> files is no longer supported
+ on Linux platforms using udev, and may not be supported
+ on other platforms in future Xorg server releases.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
-
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Xsdl server</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The experimental Xsdl server has never been finished or
- maintained, and will be removed in future X server releases.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
-
</sect2>
<sect2>
@@ -1247,26 +1213,23 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
<term>Xprint</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The Xprint server and extension have been removed in
- this release. The libXaw8 variant of the Athena Widgets
- which added Xprint widgets has been removed from this
- release. Xprint support in a number of client programs
- has also been removed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>kdrive servers</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The kdrive X servers for vesa, ati, chips, epson, i810,
- igs, ipaq, itsy, mach64, mga, neomagic, nvidia, pcmcia, pm2,
- r128, savage, sis300, sis530, smi, trident, trio, ts300, via,
- and vxworks have been removed in this release. Most of
- these have not worked or been maintained in recent releases.
+ The Xprint server and extension were previously removed
+ from X11R7.5. This release removes Xprint support from
+ a number of client programs that still had it.
</para>
</listitem>
- </varlistentry>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Xsdl server</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The experimental Xsdl server has never been finished or
+ maintained, and will be removed in future X server releases.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
<varlistentry>
<term>Unmaintained extensions</term>
<listitem>
@@ -1275,40 +1238,11 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
following extensions, which were obsolete, not widely
used, or not working:
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem><para>AppGroup</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>EVI</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>FontCache</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>TOG-CUP</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>XTrap</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>XFree86-Misc</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>XEvIE</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Multi-Buffering</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Xorg configuration utilities</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <command>xorgcfg</command> GUI and
- <command>xorgconfig</command> CLI utilities
- have been removed in this release. See the
- <link linkend="config">Configuration File</link> section for
- alternative methods of Xorg configuration.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>ioport</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The ioport utility and its aliases (inb, inw, inl, outb, outw,
- and outl) for manipulating I/O space addresses directly have
- been removed in this release.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
</sect2>
@@ -2063,7 +1997,7 @@ The next section describes what is new in the latest version
</para>
<para>
- This product includes software that is based in part of the work of the
+ This product includes software that is based in part on the work of the
FreeType Team (<ulink url="http://www.freetype.org/"></ulink>).
</para>
--
1.7.3.2
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