X server 1.3 release status, plea for driver developer comments

[Keith Packard]

I spent a bit of time over the long weekend cleaning up the X server
tree in preparation for the 1.3 release. Here's the current status:

The proposed patches have been merged; one new one for Xephyr appeared
after I merged the others; I'll look at that and pull it across shortly.

The new mode setting API is all pushed over to the X server and pulled
out of the Intel driver. For now, building the Intel driver is a bit of
a pain as it requires current X server sources, even if you are building
against an older server. When we release tarballs for the driver, the
needed sources will be automatically included so this won't be a problem
there.

EXA damage track has been merged over, along with a few new fixes.

The biggest question remaining in my mind is whether the new mode
setting API is ready to be stabilized. Aaron Platner and Andy Ritger
have both expressed a desire for some minor changes; I haven't seen
anything from them since XDC though. Dave Airlie was also interested in
similar changes, but he hasn't sent anything either. Tilman Saurerbeck
has found more code in the intel driver that should be moved out to the
server common area; I'll be working on that tomorrow if I get some time.

So, I think we're nearly ready to go, but I want to ask driver
developers to take a few minutes to report whether they've looked hard
enough at the new mode setting API to tell whether it will work with
their chips. Changing it after 1.3 will be harder than before, so let's
work to make those changes unnecessary, or at least easier to make in a
compatible fashion. Of course, the server APIs should be flexible enough
that we can replace the mode setting code yet again if this stuff is
completely messed up, but I'd certainly prefer that we not have to do
that again this year.

And, of course, if you have additional comments or questions about this
release, please make them known sooner rather than later; we can't fix
what we don't know is broken.

-- 
keith.packard at intel.com
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