R7.1 roadmap, and additional goals

[Egbert Eich]

Philip Prindeville writes:
 > Is it too late to be adding additional goals to the R7.1 roadmap?
 > 
 > http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/ChangesForX11R71
 > 
 > I was thinking that it might be nice to draft an API for supporting
 > various video back-ends for supporting composite, VGA, DVI,
 > LVDS, DFP, etc. and having a standard API for transmitters/encoders/
 > whatnot that's decoupled from the video engine itself, since one often
 > finds board manufacturers (or video controller manufacturers) mixing
 > and matching vendors when it comes to back-ends...  You might have
 > a Cirrus video controller, but it will be using a VIA or Sigma or TI
 > encoder or transmitter... etc.
 > 
 > For instance, if support gets hacked into the unichrome drivers for the
 > VT1631 LVDS transmitter, should all of the work have to be duplicated
 > to get the Intel 915 or S3 or Trident drivers to support the same
 > transmitter?  Seems like wasted effort.
 > 
 > Or is this more than can be realistically done?

Not for 7.1. But it should be a goal for a future release.
It is something that is greatly required and we need to start
moving on this.
However just having an API does not help. It needs to be verified
that this API meets what is needed. Therefore we need to carefully
look thru the individual drivers and see if we can identify common
requirements different drivers may have.

Cheers,
	Egbert.