This probably isn?t the right forum in which to place this, but I have no idea which one is the right one, so if anyone would be so kind as to point me in the right direction, I?d be most grateful. The idea that I had is as follows, and related to X, which is why I am posting this here.
The main motivation behind it would be to make desktop computers run faster by removing some of the layers of abstraction between programs and the kernel, one of the most obvious layers being X itself (I am *not* trying to start a flame-war here, please read on before you reach any conclusions!). In theory, if programs with GUIs wrote directly to the frame-buffer and spoke directly to the kernel (instead of talking to it via X), then you would have accomplished that much. The problem is that writing code for programs that use GUIs to do this directly is difficult, and you still need to have something exercising control over focus between the programs etc. (I?m not going to touch the kernel). My approach would be to try and solve this problem, without needing to rewrite or recompile these programs (with other header files, etc.).
?Prelink-meets-Wine-meets-X?
This approach still requires a controlling program that handles the sending of focus events to programs, and events for programs to repaint themselves after they get uncovered by moving other windows, but this ?mini-X? would do virtually *nothing* beyond those two functions. Instead, all your programs that need to talk to X would be processed in much the same way that prelink works, and the references in them that make requests to X would be replaced (inline, so to speak) in the executable with code that would talk directly to the kernel etc. At which point you could uninstall X and these programs would run normally. Please note that the current intention is to do away with most of the server-part model of X; most desktop users never use this functionality and this idea is targeted solely at them.
Obviously, you would still need something running in the background to keep track of which window has the focus, etc. This part would be dealt with by ?mini-X?, as I mentioned earlier. Perhaps ?mini-X? could also capture calls from programs that haven?t been processed that try to talk to X as they startup, and process them then, for want of an idea.
I hope that this explanation is clear enough. If it isn?t, please say so; I?ll be happy to try again! I would appreciate feedback on whether this idea is practical, feasible or sufficiently useful. If it would in all probability have a negligible effect on performance (bearing in mind that it would impact on memory as all these programs would become (possibly significantly) larger), please say so. Otherwise, I?d appreciate being pointed in the right direction for documentation, ideas, similar projects etc.
Thanks in advance, Roland
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