Use pure X11 backend for glass native

[Thiago Milczarek Sayão]

Hi,

So far, it seems native Xlib is a good fit:

https://github.com/openjdk/jfx-sandbox/tree/tsayao_xlib

It's still a big mess since I'm porting gradually while learning X11.

-- Thiago.


Em ter., 25 de jan. de 2022 às 12:06, Thiago Milczarek Sayão <
thiago.sayao at gmail.com> escreveu:

>
> I put some thoughts on Linux glass backend and I think a pure Xlib backend
> would be the ideal choice.
>
> Why?
>
> 1. X11/Xlib is supported by Xwayland, so it will work for decades
> (probably). Having two backends to support for one platform would not be
> ideal, so sticking with X11 would be the most "compatible choice". I will
> probably be forever supported, since many applications rely on it.
>
> 2. Gdk4 moved away from being a "general toolkit layer" to being a "gtk4
> platform abstraction layer", so many things are missing such as:
> - Moving windows;
> - Drawing directly on a window;
> - Relative window positioning;
> - Changing window stacking;
> - Pointer warping;
>
> Glass needs it, so it would be required to use a Xlib call anyways, since
> Xwayland currently does not support those operations as well (except
> through the X11 compatibility layer).
>
> Newer gtk3 versions deprecate a lot of functions and make a path to gtk4,
> so even gtk3 is hard to use.
>
> 3. It would be possible to migrate from gtk3 to Xlib progressively since
> Gdk3 with X11 backend translates to Xlib calls;
>
> 4. It would drop the gtk dependency (except for webkit-gtk). OS-specific
> dialogs such as file save would be a problem (but not too hard to solve I
> think).
>
>
> References:
> https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/libX11/libX11/libX11.html
>
> https://discourse.gnome.org/t/gtk4-migration-window-management-functions-gone/7542/9
> https://discourse.gnome.org/t/custom-drawing-with-gtk4/7737
>
>
>