X Window system on Handheld devices

[Alan Coopersmith]

On 07/17/11 09:38 AM, David Jackson wrote:
> You are making assumptions, that no company will ever produce a hardware device
> that has a monochrome screen. Yet, a monochrome screen would be suitable for
> ereader devices such as a kindle.

I own a kindle so understand that well.  The only assumption I made is that you
have little idea what has been done here for the last decade.

> As for code, memory today is cheap. I've looked closely at X memory useage and
> it seems from what i can see anyway that X server code consumes less than 10 MB,
> with all of the compability infrastructure. Maintaining code for compatability
> and backwards compatability has value greater than saving some kilobytes or a
> megabyte in the age of hundreds or thousands of megabytes.

Yes, we keep trying to tell that to the handheld device makers, and they keep
arguing for cutting back more and more.   Much of the disagreement has moved
into configure flags so they can compile out the bits they don't want.

> Ive been using X since the days of 90 MB of RAM. X memory usage has never been a
> big issue, the idea that X, including code for backwards compatability,  uses a
> lot of RAM is an old lie that refuses to die.  Blowing up baclwards
> compatability to save a megabyte or 2 of RAM makes no sense whatsoever.

Glad to hear you agree with our general direction in these matters then.

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-        alan.coopersmith at oracle.com
	 Oracle Solaris Platform Engineering: X Window System