Re: Clipboard

[Lyndon Drake <lyndon stat auckland ac nz>]

On Tue, Sep 07, 1999 at 03:29:52PM -0400, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> Yes, there you are correct.  Sound should be independent of X, so console
> programs can make use of them.  Currently (for Linux at least), things like
> OSS and ALSA exist, but here we have two seperate and incompatible API's.
> 
> An X example of my point: XFree86 4.0 will have this new DRI (Direct
> Rendering Interface), right?  Let's say someone else creates a Fast Graphics
> Interface.  Then some programs will be written for DRI, some for FGI.
> Here's the problem: either X servers will have to support one (so one wont
> work), they'll have to support both (takes up more memory), or it will truly
> support one and create a wrapper/emulator for the other (that one ahs
> reduced performance).  A single, universal standard that everyone follows
> will make life easier for everyone.
> 

But who decides what the standard is?  And if I disagree, what's to stop me
creating my own, better system?  Competition is a Good Thing, and works
particularly well in the free software world, where there is no Bill Gates
to decide which standard wins.  The standard will be whatever people want to
use, and we might end up with multiple desktop environments (GNOME, KDE and
GnuStep, for example).  Different users like different desktop environments,
and this way they get to choose.

You mention DRI, and suggest later in your message that Windows is better in
this respect because there is one interface.  Unfortunately, there are at
least three popular 3D graphics APIs on Windows: Direct3D, OpenGL, and
Glide.  There are other examples in Windows where multiple interfaces exist,
not necesarily with Microsoft's encouragement or approval (e.g. OpenGL).

-- 
Lyndon Drake                       | Desktop:      http://www.gnome.org
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