path: root/X11R6.1.mdwn

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/SoftwareApplication">

# <span itemprop="name">X Window System</span>, <span itemprop="version">Version 11, Release 6.1</span>

<span itemprop="description">
X11R6.1 was an update to the sixth release of the X Window System, Version 11.
</span>
It was <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.windows.x/2zoxj2kY5N0/2BKIYn03VigJ">released in
<span itemprop="datePublished" content="1996-03-05">March 1996</span></a>,
with the following changes excerpted from the <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/X11R6.1/RELNOTES.TXT" itemprop="releaseNotes">release notes</a>.
The sources are available for download for historical reference from
<a href="http://www.x.org/releases/X11R6.1/" itemprop="downloadUrl">http://www.x.org/releases/X11R6.1/</a>.

[[!toc levels=4 startlevel=2]]

## What Is Release 6.1

This is the [[X Consortium|XConsortium]] implementation of the X Window System.  X is a
vendor-neutral, system-architecture neutral network-transparent window
system and user interface standard.  X runs on a wide range of computing
and graphics machines.  For an overview of X, see the X manual page.

R6.1 is an update to R6.  It is compatible with R6 at the source and
protocol levels in all respects, and binaries are upward-compatible.

###  Extensions supported

The core distribution includes the following extensions: BIG-REQUESTS,
DOUBLE-BUFFER, MIT-SHM, MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD, Multi-Buffering, RECORD, SHAPE,
SYNC, X3D-PEX, XC-MISC, XFree86-VidModeExtension, XIE, XInputExtension,
XKEYBOARD, XTEST, and XTestExtension1.

Not all of these extensions are standards; see the XStandards manual
page.

##  What is Unchanged in Release 6.1


As this is an update release, there is a great deal of stability in the
standards, libraries, and clients.  No existing standards have changed in a
material way, though several documents have been updated with editorial
improvements.  Most of the libraries have no new interfaces.



##  What Is New in Release 6.1


This section describes changes in the X Consortium distribution since
[[Release 6|X11R6]].

All libraries, protocols, and servers are compatible with Release 6.
That is, R6 clients and applications will work with R6.1 libraries and
servers and vice versa.

The major new functionality in R6.1 is the X Keyboard extension, double
buffering for smooth animation, and protocol recording.


###  New Standards


The following are new X Consortium standards in Release 6.1.  Each is
described in its own section below.

 * XKEYBOARD (XKB)
 * RECORD
 * DOUBLE-BUFFER (DBE)
 * ICE X Rendevous



###  DBE


The Double Buffer Extension (DBE) provides a standard way to utilize
double-buffering, allowing flicker-free animation.

The older Multi-Buffering extension is not linked in to the X server by
default.  It will move to unsupported status at the next release.


###  XKB


An early version of the X Keyboard extension (XKB) was shipped as a work
in progress in R6.  In R6.1 it is now complete.

XKB provides detailed keyboard descriptions and enhanced keyboard functionality,
including support for the ISO 9995 keyboard model.

With XKB are several new core clients, xkbcomp, xkbevd, xkbprint, each
in their own directory under xc/programs, and xkbbell, xkbvleds, and
xkbwatch, in xc/programs/xkbutils.


###  RECORD


An early version of the RECORD extension was shipped as a work in
progress in R6.  It is now complete.

RECORD is an X protocol extension that supports the recording of all
core X protocol and arbitrary X extension protocol.

###  VidMode

This extension allows interactively adjusting graphics frame buffer parameters
on PC-based (primarily Intel) hardware.  It is not a Consortium standard.


###  ICE X Rendezvous


The Inter-Client Exchange protocol (ICE), which became a standard in
X11R6, specifies a generic communication framework for data exchange
between arbitrary clients.  The ICE protocol itself does not specify the
manner in which two clients interested in communicating via ICE are made
aware of each other's existence.

The ICE X Rendezvous protocol is one standard protocol by which two
clients who have connections to a common X server can rendezvous.  This
new protocol is included in the ICE Protocol Specification document.

###  Internationalization


Clarifications have been made to several sections of Chapter 13 of the
Xlib specification.  No changes to the Xlib standard are involved.


###  Header Files


xc/include/Xalloca.h is solely responsible for defining ALLOCATE_LOCAL
and DEALLOCATE_LOCAL.  You should be able to add or update a platform's
support for alloca() by editing this one file instead of finding and
changing the multiple definitions that existed previously.

xc/include/Xpoll.h allows more portable, consistent select() and poll()
use in the clients, including getting the fd_set properly defined.  (The
servers still use select on all systems, even those that have poll.)


###  X Server



####  Device Support


The following ddxen have been removed: macII, omron, and svga.

The XFree86 ddx has been updated to 3.1.2C.

The IBM ddx has been updated to work on AIX 4 as well as AIX 3.2.

There is a new HP ddx with support for a new graphics card, the HCRX
(HyperCRX, HPA4071A_Z), available in 8-bit or 24-bit deep options.  The
24-bit version has a optional hardware accelerator, in which case it's
known as an HCRX24Z.  This ddx was distributed in R6 public patch 9.

The Xnest ddx now works on 64-bit machines.

The DEC ddx now works on an Alpha with a simple framebuffer (PMAG-B).


####  Internal Changes


To support DBE idioms, the new functions PeekNextRequest and
SkipRequests add the ability to do request lookahead and skipping.  See
xc/programs/server/os/io.c, xc/programs/server/include/os.h, and
xc/doc/specs/Xserver/ddx.tbl.ms.

The pixelization of zero-width lines is now tunable so that you can make the
server match what your hardware does.  See xc/programs/Xserver/mi/miline.h.
As a result of this work, clipping and pixelization of zero-width lines are now
consistent across cfb, mfb, and mi.

Several new callback lists were introduced to support the RECORD extension:
DeviceEventCallback, ReplyCallback, SkippedRequestsCallback, and
FlushCallback.  The parameters of the ClientStateCallback changed:
instead of passing a pointer to the client as the call_data, a pointer
to a small structure containing a pointer to the client and pointers to
the connection setup information is passed.


###  New Programs


There are new core programs xkbcomp, xkbevd, xkbprint, xkbbell, xkbvleds, and
xkbwatch.


###  xmh


The xmh mail reader is now session aware.  This enhancement was distributed in
R6 public patch 8.


###  xsm


The xsm session manager has many enhancements.  It has been moved out of
xc/workInProgress into xc/programs.  Most of the enhancements were distributed
in R6 public patch 8.  Advanced signal handling in xsm is appearing for the
first time in R6.1.


###  xterm


The xterm terminal emulator has been minimally internationalized to use
the Xlib built-in input method with 8-bit character sets.


###  Fonts


Digital has contributed numerous fixes the the bitmap fonts.  These were
distributed with R6 public patch 10.


###  ANSIfication


As noted previously under "Configuration Files", for pragmatic reasons
we changed the way we use __STDC__ to test for standard C compilers.
This is only a short-term issue, as R6.1 will be the last release that
will support traditional K&R C.  Future releases will assume a standard
C compiler and environment.


###  Software No Longer Included


The software described in this section has been removed from the core
distribution in R6.1.


####  MTXserver


The multi-threaded X server snapshot is no longer shipped.  It was in
xc/workInProgress in R6.  No further development has occurred.  Considerable
would work have been necessary to get the MTXserver sources back into a state
where they could be compiled.


####  LBX


Low Bandwidth X, shipped in preliminary form in xc/workInProgress in R6, has
been removed from the distribution pending completion of the protocol design
and sample implementation.  It will reappear in a future release.


####  Fresco


Fresco, shipped in xc/workInProgress in R6, is now independently dis-
tributed.  Source and documentation are available from
<http://www.faslab.com/fresco/HomePage.html>.



##  Acknowledgements


Release 6.1 of X Version 11 is brought to you by the X staff at X Consortium,
Inc: Donna Converse, Stephen Gildea, Kaleb Keithley, Matt Landau, Ralph Mor, 
Bob Scheifler, Ralph Swick, Ray Tice, Mark Welch, and Dave Wiggins.

Many companies and individuals have cooperated and worked extremely hard to make
this release a reality, and our thanks go out to them.  You will find many of
them listed in the acknowledgements in the individual specifications.

Contributions were received from

Mike Patnode and SCO.

XKB: Erik Fortune (SGI) was the architect and major implementor.  Help
was received from Will Walker (Digital).  Funding for some of this work
was provided by IBM.  The library spec was written by Gary Atkins and
Amber Benson.  The XFree86 Team used early versions and provided useful
feedback and bug reports.

DBE: T. Alex Chen (IBM), Peter Daifuku (SGI), Ian Elliott (HP), Jim Graham
(Sun), Larry Hare (AGE), Jay Hersh (X Consortium), Daryl Huff (Sun), Deron Dann
Johnson (Sun), Louis Khouw (Sun), Mark Kilgard (SGI), Allen Leinwand (SGI).  Rob
Lembree (Digital), Alan Ricker (Metheus), Michael Rosenblum (Digital), Larry
Seiler (Digital), Jeanne Sparlin (IBM), Jeff Stevenson (HP), Walter Strand
(Metheus), Ken Tidwell (HP), Tom Yip (HP).

RECORD: Rob Chesler (Absol-puter), Amnon Cohen (Mercury Interactive),
Kieron Drake (UniSoft), Marc Evans (Synergytics) Jim Fulton (NCD), Jim
Haggerty (Metheus) Ken Miller (Digital), Alan Ricker (Metheus), Kent
Siefkes (Performance Awareness), and Martha Zimet (NCD).

ddxen: HP, IBM, Digital, XFree86 Team.

fonts: Digital

Hidetoshi Tajima (Sun) tested the new internationalization code, providing
useful bug reports and fixes.

ICE X Rendevous: Will Walker (Digital), Keith Edwards (Georgia Institute
of Technology).

<div style="font-size: small; border-top: 1px solid black;">
<p>
Copyright &copy; <span itemprop="copyrightYear">1996</span>
<span itemprop="copyrightHolder"
 itemscope itemtype="http://www.schema.org/Organization">
<span itemprop="name">X Consortium</span>
</span>.
</p><p>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
“Software”, to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
</p>
<p>
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
</p>
<p>
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE X CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
</p>
<p>
Except as contained in this notice, the name of the X Consortium shall
not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or
other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization
from the X Consortium.
</p>
<p>
<i>X Window System</i> is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc.
</p>
</div>
</div>