This is the third year I try to do this project project for gsoc. It looks like there have been some interest in it before, but for one reason or another it has never been selected. I'm trying one last time.
This is a first draft of the proposal. I would be very glad if somebody had somehting to add or, even better, wanted to be a possible mentor. Although this project is not in the ideas list, it can be an alternative solution to writing a new window manager, at least for those users who use unix to interact with their Plan 9 and Inferno systems. Xlib library and window server There are currently several Plan 9-related pieces of software using almost identical code to manage X windows in unix systems. 9vx, Inferno, drawterm and p9p have the same need to handle a window in the host system and interact with X, but they don’t use the same code (although some of them are derived from other ones). This project aims to unify these four implementations in a new library (libxdraw) which 9vx, inferno, drawterm and p9p’s devdraw can link to, removing all the xlib dependent code from these projects. This way, maintenance will be simplified and, if in the future we have to adapt to xcb, or wayland, or whatever they come up with, transition will be easier. In addition to the libxdraw library (which is mostly a refactoring task), a new program will be writen: xwsys. This (unix) program will be a 9P server - probably using p9p’s 9pserve - presenting a rio-like file system. This file system would then be used to create and manipulate windows in the X window system, providing the expected drawing and keyboard devices. Using this program together with drawterm, 9vx or inferno it would be possible to use the host window manager to manage Plan 9 or inferno windows without any modification, avoiding having to run rio or the inferno wm inside a window (but allowing it). (I will write a detailed schedule in the final proposal, but wanted to know general opinions first.) -- - yiyus || JGL . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Plan 9 Google Summer of Code" group. To post to this group, send email to plan9-gsoc@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to plan9-gsoc+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/plan9-gsoc?hl=en.
