Abstract

Unfortunately, Xlib suffers from a number of implementation issues that have made it unsuitable for some classes of application. Most notably, Xlib is a large body of code. This is of most significance on small platforms such as hand-held computers, where permanent and temporary storage are both limited, but can also have performance disadvantages on any modern architecture due to factors such as cache size. In addition, because of Xlib's monolithic nature, it is difficult to maintain.

The authors' prior work on the X protocol C Binding (XCB) is intended to provide a high-quality but incompatible replacement for Xlib. While XCB is believed to be suitable for most new application and toolkit construction, it is desirable to support the large installed base of legacy code and experience by augmenting XCB with an Xlib-compatible API.

This desire has led to the construction of a new library, the Xlib Compatibility Layer (XCL), that is binary-compatible with frequently-used portions of Xlib while being significantly smaller and easier to maintain. Benefits are demonstrated for both existing and new applications written for Xlib. In particular, the significant share of existing knowledge and written material about Xlib remains applicable to XCL. Also, XCL can significantly ease the migration path from Xlib to XCB.

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