clisp-module-clx 1:2.49-9ubuntu1 / usr / lib / clisp-2.49 / clx / new-clx / README

What is this?
=============

Hadn't we CLX for CLISP for centuries? Yes, but this is a re-implementation
of CLX written in C for speed. I started coding all this in December 1995. I
was motivated by the idea, that hopefully Garnet will run with acceptable
performance on my machine, when I would have finished this. And it was a
success, I am able to run a usable Garnet on my old but more stable
i486/33,16MB box. Using my new PPro/200,32MB it runs perfectly smooth. Does
not run either on my Atari ST, nor on my CP/M-80 box due to lack of X11.

    To use this package you will have to recompile CLISP; more precise:
build a new link set. See the INSTALL file for instructions. If you could
make use of an i386/Linux/ELF binary, you may want to grasp the binary
distribution. [Maybe there will appear also an a.out version.]


Benefits vs. CLX coded in Lisp
==============================

- it is faster

  This mainly to two reasons. The CLISP compiler is not very good, when it
  comes to do all these bit operations and pushing bytes back and forth as
  in the CLX code. Second reason is, that i.e drawing a line do not produce
  garbage using this CLX implementation in contrast to MIT-CLX.

  I had actually some code for viewing a wire model of an 3D scene. [Yes, it
  was a quake level "editor" (more a language than an "editor") -- Flame on
  me for this total waste of time]. However using CLISP with this CLX,
  allowed me to view the wire model somewhat smoothly. Using CMUCL is was
  just too slow and I had declared all the types in the numeric portions of
  the code proper. [all the usual matrix and vector stuff.] Sometime I will
  have to justify that with some benchmarks.

- it is virtually smaller

  Currently I was able to blow up code size to somewhat near 120k, but it is
  likely that it will shrink in the future. MIT-CLX needs approx 700k.
  [Judging the .mem files] Well, this is not true, since this new CLX needs
  libX and maybe some other. libX alone is about 600k on my box. But it is
  shared nowadays, and you will want to have at least one xterm open to
  launch CLISP.

- I was able to run Garnet successfully, all the demos and gilt and lapidary.

- WINDOW, PIXMAP, etc... are now CLOS classes. This is the right way to go,
  and I wanted to be able to compile CLUE. But CLUE does not run, see below.

- I plan to offer access to the SHAPE and to the multi buffer extension. The
  most basic function for the SHAPE extension is already there. [look at the
  sokoban code].


Drawbacks
=========

- This CLX is not derived from MIT-CLX, it uses the C libX. This is the
  reason why I concentrate on the symbols _exported_ from the XLIB
  package. I could not offer all the internals, because those internal are
  not there. See the comment on CLUE below.

- CLUE will not run. But this is not my fault. CLUE just digs too much with
  the internals of CLX. [It makes heavy use of symbols not exported from the
  XLIB package.] Anyhow, I hit lots of bugs in the CLUE code, so elided CLUE
  from my disk and better use Garnet now.

- It is still beta. I plan to offer nearly 100% compatibility to
  MIT-CLX. Every program just using the external symbols of XLIB, should run
  without modifications in the future. The more bug reports I get from you
  the faster it will leave the beta state and become stable and
  complete. Let me repeat this: Send me bug reports!

Functions which are incomplete:
  PUT-IMAGE
    works only for images of depth 1.
  DRAW-IMAGE-GLYPHS and DRAW-GLYPHS
    do not work with the :translate argument
  GCONTEXT-FONT and (SETF GCONTEXT-FONT)
    do not have the pseudo-font-p argument
  TEXT-EXTENTS
    with arguments not of type string
  TEXT-WIDTH
    with arguments not of type string
  DEFAULT-ERROR-HANDLER
    currently there is no condition hierarchy, so default-error-handler uses the
    traditional cerror to report the error.

  - Many functions lack proper reporting of errors. [They just abort()]

Functions which are not defined at all:
  - DRAW-IMAGE-GLYPH
  - DRAW-GLYPH
  - GET-IMAGE
  - DISPLAY-TRACE


Installation
============

To install the NEW-CLX module, do the following:

$ ./configure --with-module=clx/new-clx --cbc build-X

If your X libraries and includes are in a weird place,
pass --x-includes=... and/or --x-libraries=... to configure above.

If you have built clisp already,

$ cd build-dir && make MODULES=clx/new-clx MODULE_CONFIGURE_FLAGS='--x-includes=... --x-libraries=...'

If the configure script detects xshape and xpm extensions, it enables them.
To avoid that, edit clx/new-clx/Makefile in your build directory
and replace -DWANT_XPM=1 and/or -DWANT_XSHAPE=1 with "...=0",
and then run "make full" again.


Demos
=====

There is a dozen little demos in the demos subdirectory.
Run clisp as

$ clisp -K full -i clx/new-clx/demos/clx-demos -p CLX-DEMOS

and follow the instructions.


Glossary
========

For those, who are not familiar with CLX, Garnet, CLUE and stuff, I put here
a few snipsets from the Lisp FAQ:

CLX
---
   CLX provides basic Common Lisp/X functionality. It is a de facto standard
   low-level interface to X, providing equivalent functionality to XLib, but
   in Lisp. It is also a good source for comparing the foreign function calls
   in various Lisps. Does *not* depend on CLOS.  Available free as part of the
   X release in the contrib directory.  Also available by anonymous ftp from
   ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/ as the files CLX.Manual.tar.Z and CLX.R5.02.tar.Z.
   [Note: The new version of CLX for X11R6 can be found (untarred) in
      ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/R6.1/contrib/lib/CLX/
   with documentation in
      ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/R6.1/contrib/doc/CLX/
   and includes some slight modifications for CLtL2 compatibility. You
   can get it in tarred form from the CMU AI Repository, Lisp section.]
   Primary Interface Author: Robert W. Scheifler <rws@zermatt.lcs.mit.edu>
   Send bug reports to bug-clx@expo.lcs.mit.edu.
   The 232 page manual is available in /pub/R5untarred/mit/hardcopy/CLX
   (PostScript format) and /pub/R5untarred/mit/doc/CLX (Interleaf source).

CLUE
----
   CLUE (Common Lisp User-Interface Environment) is from TI, and extends CLX
   to provide a simple, object-oriented toolkit (like Xt) library that uses
   CLOS. Provides basic window classes, some stream I/O facilities, and a few
   other utilities. Still pretty low level (it's a toolkit, not widget
   library).  Available free by anonymous ftp from
   ftp://csc.ti.com/pub/clue.tar.Z
   Written by Kerry Kimbrough. Send bug reports to clue-bugs@dsg.csc.ti.com.

Garnet
------
   Garnet is a large and flexible GUI. Lots of high-level features.  Does
   *not* depend on CLOS, but does depend on CLX. Garnet (version 2.0 and
   after) is now in the public domain, and has no licensing restrictions,
   so it is available to all foreign sites and for commercial uses.
   Detailed instructions for obtaining it by anonymous ftp are available
   by anonymous ftp as
      a.gp.cs.cmu.edu:/usr/garnet/garnet/README [128.2.242.7]
   Garnet includes the Lapidiary interactive design tool, C32 constraint
   editor, spreadsheet object, Gilt Interface Builder, automatic display
   management, two widget sets (Motif look-and-feel and Garnet
   look-and-feel), support for gesture recognition, and automatic
   constraint maintenance, application data layout and PostScript
   generation. Runs in virtually any Common Lisp environment, including
   Allegro, Lucid, CMU, and Harlequin Common Lisps on Sun, DEC, HP,
   Apollo, IBM 6000, and many other machines.  Garnet helps implement
   highly-interactive, graphical, direct manipulation programs for X/11
   in Common Lisp.  Typical applications include: drawing programs
   similar to Macintosh MacDraw, user interfaces for expert systems and
   other AI applications, box and arrow diagram editors, graphical
   programming languages, game user interfaces, simulation and process
   monitoring programs, user interface construction tools, CAD/CAM
   programs, etc. Contact Brad Myers (bam@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu) for more
   information. Bug reports should be sent to garnet-bugs@cs.cmu.edu.
   Administrative questions should be sent to garnet@cs.cmu.edu or
   garnet-request@cs.cmu.edu. Garnet is discussed on the newsgroup
   comp.windows.garnet (which is gatewayed to garnet-users@cs.cmu.edu for
   those without access to netnews).


A word on copyright
===================

I am affraid that some of the files lack a proper copyright statement.
So I state it here again:

All files in this distribution except image.lisp and resource.lisp
are copyrighted

 "Copyright (c) 1996 by Gilbert Baumann, distributed under GPL"
 (GPL = The GNU Public Licence).

image.lisp, resource.lisp, and parts of clx.lisp are copyrighted
 "Copyright (C) 1987 Texas Instruments Incorporated."

Hope that is suffient and nobody will hinder me from improving, using,
distributing, disturbing, hacking my own code. Hugh!

-------
Fri Oct 11 1996
Gilbert Baumann <gilbert@ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de>