> > So why are both "class" and "xdpy" required? How should xdpy
> > be used?
> >
> The output of list devices is consumed by the CDE and JDS device
> allocation tools. This has been the design for over 10 years. The output
> is in the form of key=value lists, and is parseable.
Exactly my point. In the original case 2005/691 and in this
case and in my conversations in pre-review, the output from
list_devices is NOT a programming interface. It was previously
ARCed as Unstable. That was clarified here to be Not-An-Interface.
I find no contracts in 2005/691 for any consumers, nor options
on the man page for a format of output that is an interface.
Nor documentation of what that output might be. Indeed when I
talked with the project team (long before the last minute addition
of xdpy), I explicitly asked how the output was consumed. IIRC,
the answer was it was displayed verbatim to the user who then
choose what to do. And I suggested a possible stable form of
output in XML, with a new option "-x."
The project cannot have it both ways. Not-An-Interface != Committed
> The xdpy value is the display number corresponding to the specific X
> server associated with the logged in user. Each user, whether on the
> console or a Sun Ray appliance, has his own X server with a unique port
I got that. That's clear. What wasn't clear is how xdpy was
to be used. There is no stable interface to consume it, thus
it had to be used only internally to allocate/deallocate/list_devices.
And that didn't make sense.
> > This seems different from "zone," which I can intuit being used
> > for internal bookkeeping in allocate/deallocate to identify the
> > labeled zone where the allocated device nodes reside.
> >
> It is not related to zone. Remember that in a given zone there could be
> a hundred Sun Ray users, each with their own xdpy value.
That's what I was trying to say "zone" was used internally for
bookkeeping and allocate/deallocate/list_devices filtering.
There is no proposed equivalent to "-c" (class) or "-z" (zonename)
to filter on "xdpy".
It seems like there are missing interfaces one way or another.
More filter options, or stable parsable output options for
list_devices seem the alternatives.
I'm not trying to design on the fly here. The design's up to
the project team.
Gary..
