Re: Switching X contexts HOWTO ??

[Brett Granger <bdgranger alum mit edu>]

Tristan Van Berkom wrote:
> Owen Taylor wrote:
>
> > Tristan Van Berkom <vantr touchtunes com> writes:
> >
> >
> > > Hi there!
> > >
> > >      I'm writing an Image server that has to load images ("GdkPixmaps" etc
> > > ....)
> > > as X recources (with an XID *) into various X servers And before I go
> > > and write a
> > > "gtk_xcontext_switch(const char *display);" interface I'm wondering if
> > > one already exists
> > >
> > > ... but it doesn't seem like gtk was developed with that in mind.
> > >
> > > I've got a few Ideas
> > >
> > > 1. Spawn a child proccess to do gtk_init() ... add widgets and exit()
> > > (the exit will cleanup gtk)
> > > 2. Spawn a child for every X server I have to serve (what a pain in the
> > > ass :( )
> > >
> > > Idealy I need to "Uninit" gtk without flaging X resources as "dirty".
> > >
> > > If anyone has any Ideas or has had / having similar problems please mail
> > > me at:
> >
> > This is simply not possible with GTK+-1.2.x or GTK+-2.0.x.
> >
> > GTK+-2.2, which should be released within a few months, will
> > have multiple display and multiple screen support as it's
> > main new feature.
> >
> > Regards,
> >                                        Owen
> > _______________________________________________
> > gtk-app-devel-list mailing list
> > gtk-app-devel-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-app-devel-list
>
>
>
> Hi!
>
>         Actualy I found a way to do it (only with pixbufs) ... If you look
> at "gdk-pixbuf-xlib" module you'll find that with a couple of hours of
> work (instead of "static Display *gdk_pixbuf_display" make an array of
> struct "instance" containing all static variable's and adding "Display
> *disp"
> as the first arg to all function prototypes)
>
>         All I have to do is a Cleanup function now (to do the oposite of
> gdk_pixbuf_xlib_init(Display *display); )
>
>         Anyhow ... its been about a week since I joined the list and asked this
> question
> (maybe it didn't get through right away) and at least someone responded
>
> Much apreciation
>         -Tristan
> _______________________________________________
> gtk-app-devel-list mailing list
> gtk-app-devel-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-app-devel-list

I'm impressed that you would dive into the guts of gdk like that...

If the goal is just to leave the images on the XServer so they're 
available to other apps to use and not have the gtk app remain resident, 
you might consider the XSetCloseDownMode call with the RetainPermanent 
option.  It does exactly that -- lets an app close without getting rid 
of any of the X resources.  However, you would still have to launch a 
small image loading app per display, which goes against #2 of your 
desires.  I have used it quite well in combination with the 
gdk_pixmap_foreign_new call to share large pixmaps between GTK (2.0) apps.

--Brett