X.Org Foundation Modularization Working Group

Purpose

The purpose of this working group is to create a detailed design plan for how to modularize the X.Org Foundation source tree and then implement the plan once it has been approved by the Architecture Working Group. Participation is open to all interested developers. Participants are expected to actively participate in the design discussions, write proposals and other documentation, etc.

As chair of this working group, my purpose is to organize the discussions, participate in the design and generally facilitate the group's progress toward creating a design and an eventual release.

Status

A few weeks ago the Modularization Working Group was announced, and several people expressed interest in helping out. Many of them attended the recent X Developers Conference meeting in Boston and talked about how modularization might be accomplished. Since there had not been very much discussion on the mailing lists after the initial announcement, we decided to take advantage of our face to face time to lay the groundwork for creating a proposal. We have now worked through the issues that we discovered in an effort to create a strawman proposal that describes the rationale for modularization, attempts to address the known concerns people have raised, provides background on other modularization efforts, explains what the modularized source tree would look like, outlines the steps required to take this idea from concept to release, and suggests how future modular releases can be handled.

Since then the Modularization Working Group has discussed the initial strawman proposal, made modifications, and reached consensus that it should be presented to the Architecture Working Group for approval. The proposal was presented to the ArchWG on 4 Apr 2005 and no objections were raised during the discussion period, so it was approved. We are currently discussing implementation plans and have now begun the development phase. If you are interested in joining in this discussion or participating in the development effort, please join us on the mailing list (below).

Mailing list

A mailing list has been created on our new mailing list system for those who are interested in discussing the strawman proposal and working on modularizing the source tree. To subscribe to this list, please visit:

• http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-modular Mail can be sent to this list at xorg-modular@lists.x.org

Modularization resources

• ModularizationProposal -- Current modularization proposal.
• ModularizationDevelPlan -- Current modularization development plan.
• ModuleComponentList -- List of the proposed module components.
• ModularDevelopersGuide -- Guide for developers that work in the modular source tree.
• X11R7and69TODO -- List of tasks to complete before release

Past modularization efforts

• GoingModular -- How to get the X.org tree from here to there.
• X Libraries is a project containing modular, autotooled version of X Window System libraries.
• X Server is a project containing a modular, autotooled X server implementation.
• xapps is a project containing modular, autotooled X applications.