RE: Win32 version of XFree86

["Kendall Bennett" <KendallB@scitechsoft.com>]

"Suhaib Siddiqi" <Ssiddiqi@InspirePharm.Com> wrote:

> > That sounds really cool. All we need to do then is build a chipset
> > driver that runs on top of DirectX. I am very familiar with DirectX,
> > so I can probably whip that up quickly.
> 
> Could you first look into various OS-specific codes in the
> Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support?  That is where most of the work we
> need to do.  That is provide those functionalities for Win32 API. 

Ok. So it sounds like it is all compiling, but a lot of the framework 
code is not necessarily there? What about event handling? Is any of 
that done yet?

> > I thought the X11R6.4 source tree was C code only since it can
> > compile for non-intel CPU's? What assembler code is present in the
> > code, and is it localised at all? More specifically if the assembler
> > code is just in chipset drivers, we can throw those away since we
> > don't need that (DirectX becomes the chipset driver).
> 
> X11R6.4 is, but not the Xfree86 which is being added by Xfree86 Org.

I have not checked specifically, but how much assembler code is there 
in XFree86 that is outside of chipset specific drivers?

> > Sure, but we don't need *any* of that code to be compiled for the
> > Win32 version, since we don't be doing any chipset specific code. All
> > the code to talk to the hardware will be going via DirectX.
> 
> I think for you would be best to start putting directX support in
> Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support by adding your code to a
> sub-directory called win32.  Then for there we start and see waht
> would need further fix or would need to be unnecessary. 

Sure, but the actual DirectX rendering code would be done as a 
chipset driver within the SVGA driver framework. That is the quickest 
and easiest way to get something going (and what I am familiar with 
;-).

> > Actually the assembler code in XFree86 is supposed to be portable to
> > non-GCC compilers, but perhaps it isn't. I thought there was some
> > kind of assyntax.h header file that would allow the code to be
> > converted into MASM assembler code.
> 
> True, but Xfree86 best compiles with GCC and it is known since
> long time. Some of the commercial compilers on Linux cannot even
> handle some of the dirty X headers... on Win32 MSVC, simply hates
> the X headers, unless you pay to Hummingbird and buy their Xceed
> XDK but then you cannot redistribute your X code without paying $$
> to Hummingbird first. 

Well XFree86 also compiles and runs just fine on OS/2, but I am not 
sure what compiler they use. I was under the impression that either 
Watcom C++ or IBM VisualAge C++ was used to compile the OS/2 version, 
rather than a GNU C variant. However I may be wrong (since emx for 
OS/2 is the GCC for that OS).

> > But like I said, we can probably remove 95% of the assembler code
> > problems since a lot of it may just be in the chipset drivers. Unless
> > of course gobs of it are in the cfb code?
> 
> cfb, mfb and dix etc is not a problem.  That is pure C code and compiles
> perfect with GCC.

Ok. So where does the bulk of the assembler code in XFree86 come from 
then? If it is not in the above, then it must really be just chipset 
driver specifics right? And we don't need those...

> As far as your comments on GCC 2.95 performance are concerned I
> think GCC 2.95 can do a better job when porting a UNIX code then
> commercial compilers. However Mumit Khan is the GCC Win32 expert
> and would be a right person to address you comments. 

Sure, but even GCC 2.9.5 does not compare to the latest commercial 
compilers from Microsoft, Intel and MetroWerks.

Regards,


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