RE: (Fwd) Re: FW: Win32 XServer

["Kendall Bennett" <KendallB at scitechsoft dot com>]

"Suhaib Siddiqi" <ssiddiqi@inspirepharm.com> wrote:

> > Well that is a relief. It seems to me that Suhaib is hell bent on
> > getting XF86_SVGA to run natively under Win32 like it
> > does on OS/2. A
> > noble goal but a fruitless one given the bad design of Windows.
> 
> That what Mike and John refered to as negativve attitude. 

As I have said before, if you want to go ahead and try doing this, be 
my guest. The *reason* I am telling you that it is fruitless effort 
is because you *will* have major compatibility problems, and it may 
not be possible to even solve them all. I am not trying to take a 
negative attitude, but rather steer you all in the right direction. I 
would hate to see someone spend months trying to get this thing 
working, only to discover that the compatibility problems really are 
insurmountable and hence have to throw away all that hard work.

I know all this because I *write* Win32 display drivers (and OS/2, 
QNX, Linux) for a living. But you know that, because I have told you 
the same thing on a number of occasions. And just because I write 
this stuff for a living doesn't mean that I have some ulterior motive 
and plan to 'steer' you in the wrong direction.

> If I would not have taken a "hell bent on getting XF86_SVGA to run
> on Win32" atitude, XFree86 porting project would never had been
> started. 

I have said it before, what you have done is great. I have never 
tried to discount this. It is also a noble goal to try and get 
XF86_SVGA to run on Win32, but as I said above, making it actually 
happen is fraught with major compatibility issues.

You have already said in the past that you are not an experienced 
graphics device driver developer, and have been seeking advice from 
others. I have offered my advice on a number of occasions, but it 
seems to me that you are not really looking for advice, but rather 
looking to find someone who will tell you 'sure, I can make this 
work!'.

Perhaps you should read more carefully the responses from so many 
*experienced* device driver developers. It will be clear that I am 
not the only one telling you this. Many others have said the same 
thing, but it seems to me that you simply want to ignore all the good 
advice people have given you, even after you specifically sought it 
out!

> My concept of doing a XF86 port along the line of Holger's
> approach might be totally wrong, but someone needs to prove me
> wrong by contributing, not by negative comments. 

What do you expect me to *contribute* that will make you believe what 
I am telling you? Do you want me to build the damn thing, come over 
to your place and demonstrate that it doesn't work?? You have already 
demonstrated to yourself that it doesn't work, because the 
XF86_SVGA.EXE you have built does nothing but crash your machine hard.

I don't have the time right now to contribute with code, so I am 
trying to help by contributing my expertise. One day I hope to have 
more time to actually contribute some code, but at the moment I don't 
have that luxury.

> Please note the name of project "CYGWIN-XFREE". Not sure why you
> are so much opposed to Cygwin.  It is a marvelous tool. 

I have nothing against Cygwin. I just don't use it as my primary 
development tool. When I do end up contributing to this project, part 
of that contribution will be to build it all with Visual C++ or 
Watcom C++, because that is what I use.

> I prefer to take a step by step approach.  Non-cygwin support
> MIGHT be added later on.  I have already supplied you patches for
> libraries and clients for MSVC.  This should allow developers to X
> develop products without using cygwin1.dll. 

Sure. I understand all the above. I was simply asking if that stuff 
had been done yet. All you have to say is 'no, not yet'.

Regards,

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