Severe memory leaks make X.org unuseable

[milnser43200 at yahoo.com]

--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Jim Gettys <jg at freedesktop.org> wrote:

> From: Jim Gettys <jg at freedesktop.org>
> Subject: Re: Severe memory leaks make X.org unuseable
> To: milnser43200 at yahoo.com
> Cc: xorg at lists.freedesktop.org
> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 9:58 AM
> On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 06:50 -0800, milnser43200 at yahoo.com
> wrote:
> 
> 
> > 
> > The number of apps which PEX, MIT_SUNDRY, and Ximage
> is probably a rather small number but certainly there have
> been apps written to use it. As for Xfree86-misc, I have
> heard that some modern screensavers use it to provide some
> feature that makes the screensaver work in a better manner
> and there has been concern over the disruption in useability
> this will cause. xscreensaver uses this extension. So yes
> removing it is a really bad idea.
> > 
> > I dont think that backwards compatability code should
> be removed "just because we dont dont think anyone uses
> it anymore", or "because we can". As far as I
> am aware these extensions were not causing any problems and
> I cannot see the justification to remove them. One of the
> prime missions of the X.org project should be to maintain
> backwards compatability with the X11 protocol and with
> extensions for applications which need them. We cannot make
> assumptions that there are not applications that uses these
> extensions which have been there for years.
> > 
> 
> Are you volunteering to maintain them?  The largest user
> base of X
> doesn't appear to be having compatibility issues with
> their removal (now
> Linux), and without data of what their removal may be
> affecting and/or a
> volunteer to maintain them, it seems our effort should go
> elsewhere.
> 
> So please, concrete examples of what breaks, and help in
> maintenance,
> are the solution here.
>                           Best Regards,
> 				- Jim
> 
> -- 
> Jim Gettys <jg at freedesktop.org>
> 
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> xorg at lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg


I do apologise for the tone of my previous letters. I may be willing to volunteer to maintain the older extensions. I have been reading through the X.org source but I still a novice on X.org internals and how everything works. I would certainly like to contribute more to the project and become more of an X internals expert.

I do respect and admire your contributions and work on the X system and again please disregard the tone of my previous letter. 

On the upside, memory leak aside, I have seen an improvement in compatability with Savage. I used to have severe problems with it only working with a 640x480 resolution on xfree86 but now its pretty much autoconfiguring so less hassle than with XFree86. I have been using this Savage adapter since xfree86 days in 2002 and indeed things are much improved under X.org in general. The DRI work is also good and the work to add the composite, render and so on is commendable and has improved the state of the X desktop. I would certainly like to help improve the features and capability of the X system to make it the most advanced and backward compatable window system in the world.

Best Wishes,
David Jackson