X Consortium, Inc.
A Status Report

Bob Scheifler
President
rws@x.org


X Consortium, Inc.
o	Delaware not-for-profit membership corporation
o	began operation September 1, 1993
o	funded by MIT subcontract in 1993
o	what's different from MIT X Consortium?
	domain name, postal address, phone number
o	what's the same?
	pretty much everything else
		charter is the same
		open process
		free software

Staff
o	President:
		active search for a permanent one
		I'm on leave of absence from MIT
		if you know someone, contact me
o	Technical Directors:
		Matt Landau (Application Toolkits)
		Ralph Swick (Integration Technology)

Staff
o	Technical Staff:
		Donna Converse
		Gary Cutbill
		Stephen Gildea
		Jay Hersh
		Kaleb Keithley
		Ralph Mor
		Dave Wiggins
o	Office Manager:
		Janet O'Halloran

Board of Directors
o	Dr. Forest Baskett, Silicon Graphics
o	Harold Blair, Partnerwerks
o	Bruce Cleveland, Apple Computer
o	Roger Gourd, Open Software Foundation
o	Dr. Robin Hillyard, Novasoft Systems
o	Therese Myers, Quarterdeck Office Systems
o	Dan Turner, Petrotechnical Open Software Corp.
o	David Harris, Adobe Systems (ex officio)

Trademarks
o	X Window System
o	Fresco (registration in progress)
o	expect to transfer from MIT to X Consortium, Inc.

1994 Membership
o	expect 26 Full, 5 Associate, 45 Affiliate Members
o	we are looking for new members
		prospective members: let's talk
o	Independent Software Vendors
		what projects do you want us to do?
o	End User companies
		what will convince you to join?
o	membership info:
		ftp.x.org:/pub/DOCS/XConsortium
		membership@x.org

Interoperability Center
o	generalization of PEX IC
o	members put hardware, software products there
o	can use all other products in Center
o	24 hour access to Center
o	test interoperability
o	no capability or performance comparisons
o	founding members:
		Digital, HP, IBM, KPC, Sun

Release 6 dates
o	Beta (members only): February 11
o	Final to members: April 15
o	Final to public: April 25
o	Contrib: June 1

What's in R6?

Fresco
o	Mark Linton's talk and tutorial
o	working towards draft standard in R6
o	lots of room for evolution, enhancement
o	if you want to invest in this future, join us

Multi-threading
o	Xlib
		Stephen Gildea's talk last year
o	Xt
		Ajay Vohra's tutorial
o	Fresco
o	X server
o	POSIX, Solaris, AIX, Mach, OSF/1, Windows NT

Xlib
o	XInternAtoms, XGetAtomNames
o	opaque Display and GC structures
o	BIG-REQUESTS extension
		permit protocol requests > 218 bytes
		handled internal to Xlib
o	running out of resource ids
		long-running clients
		protocol extension to ask for new range
		handled internal to Xlib

Internationalization
o	Input Method protocol
		Public Review now
o	new pluggable layer
		input method
		output method
		character set conversion
		dynamic loading of modules
o	ISO 10646 support
o	new locale database format
o	Input Method server developers kit

Xt
o	safe signal handling
o	extension event dispatching
o	C++ object allocation
o	about-to-block hook
o	lots of "monitoring" hooks
		editres, screen reader for the blind
o	parameterized selections
		INSERT <selection>
o	session management
o	Public Review now

Xaw
o	Omron i18n integration
o	lots of bugs probably won't get fixed

ICE
o	Inter-Client Exchange protocol
o	Stuart Marks' talk
o	Ralph Mor's part of ICCCM tutorial
o	protocol framework
o	stop abusing X server as IPC path
o	Public Review now

Session Management
o	Mike Wexler's talk
o	Public Review now
o	xsm - sample session manager
o	xrsh - sample remote execution protocol

New Font Support
o	Nathan Meyers' talk
o	Public Review now

XIE: X Image Extension
o	Ben Fahy's talk

LBX: Low Bandwidth X
o	Keith Packard's talk
o	working towards draft standard in R6

Keyboard extension
o	Erik Fortune's tutorial & talk
o	"invisible" Xlib and Xt support
o	working towards draft standard in R6

Synchronization extension
o	synchronization between clients
		independent graphics streams
		graphics and video
o	synchronization with real-time
		animation sequencing
o	simple priority scheduling
o	Public Review now

Kerberos V5
o	Tom Yu's talk

PEX
o	Jeff Stevenson's talk

MBX: Multi-Buffering extension
o	try to finally finalize
o	support for clearing other buffers at flip
		e.g., Z buffer

EVE: Extended Visuals extension
o	describe frame buffer capabilities
		overlay, underlay
		Z, alpha, accumulation buffers
		PEX, OpenGL capable
		preallocated pixels

XTEST extension
o	allow client to be impervious to server grabs
		moving mouse via speech input

RECORD extension
o	Martha Zimet's talk

Networking
o	poll support in Xlib, Xt
o	transport code unification
		common code for clients, servers
		Xlib, ICElib, fontlib, FSlib, xfs, Xserver
o	SVR4/Intel local connections

X server
o	function prototypes
o	4-bit, 16-bit and 24-bit cfb
o	64-bit systems, 64-bit frame buffers
o	Xsvga
		uses VESA SVPMI description files
		SVR4 only

Xvfb server
o	virtual memory frame buffer
o	no real input devices
o	configurable screen count, size, depth, visual
o	screens can be mmap'ed files in xwd format
		screen dump even when at breakpoint
o	great for testing

Xnest server
o	ddx uses Xlib to a "real" server
o	mirrors capabilities of other display
o	easier to see what's going on than Xvfb
o	useful for testing dix and extensions
o	useful for debugging client protocol errors
o	useful for "grab" debugging

Windows NT
o	client-side support
o	no xterm, xdm
o	DLLs
		Xlib, maybe no others
		DLL semantics too brain-damaged
o	some rough edges

Drag & Drop protocol
o	quite possibly nothing in R6

Remote Access Protocol(s)
o	editres replacement
o	screen-reader for blind
o	ICE-based
o	several protocol proposals evolving