Re: disabling GTK+ features to shrink GTK+

[Michael Torrie <torriem gmail com>]

On 08/16/2010 12:54 PM, Enrico Weigelt wrote:
>> Why would you want to use directfb when a tiny X server is the 
>> same footprint and much better supported?
> 
> Which one are you talking about ? Kdrive ?
> How good is it supported, especially on non-x86 platforms ?

Correct.  kdrive is now part of the core x.org source tree, and is used
on a variety of architectures and devices.

My only experiences with it have been on Arm.  I don't know of anyone
using it on x86.  The ebook reader I just bought, when loaded with the
OpenInkpot firmware (actually ships on a few readers from the factory),
it uses kdrive as well, on mips.  No one would ever know it uses X11,
but it sure makes life easier for the widget toolkits and the developers.

I disagree with Android's decision to reinvent the wheel when it came to
windowing--Android uses some kind of platform frame buffer driver.   X11
clearly supports multitouch and the other needs of Android's UI toolkit.

> Xwindow generelly has several design drawbacks due its history
> and doesn't scale particular well in constrainted local-only
> applications, compared to Dfb+fusion.

Have you tried it and encountered these limitations?  If so, could you
share them with us?  My own experience did not not support your
conclusions, at least at the time I was doing this.

I have to also say that being able to run an app on the embedded device
but use my workstation's screen as an X11 server, or vice versa, helped
out with initial development and debugging, moreso than a framebuffer
emulator.