[xougen] freedesktop.org - Hosting for future Cygwin/X development

[Harold L Hunt II]

I have been talking a lot to the developers at freedesktop.org:

http://freedesktop.org/


On their Software page, you will see that they have a new tree with most 
useful X libs and the kdrive X Server:

http://freedesktop.org/Software/Home
http://freedesktop.org/Software/xlibs
http://freedesktop.org/Software/xserver


The DRI project has also moved their source to the freedesktop.org project:

http://freedesktop.org/Software/dri


As some of you may know, Keith Packard has moved most of his development 
there, including fontconfig, which redirects to freedesktop.org now:

http://freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig


FreeType development is also hosted there, but the page is still on 
SourceForge.


I am now maintaining stand-alone freetype2 and fontconfig packages for 
Cygwin (for unrelated reasons, but it did turn out to be serendipitous). 
 Because of this, I will be required to submit upstream patches to 
wherever those packages are being developed (freedesktop.org).


I am also going to be packaging up other stand-alone libraries that are 
currently part of our monolithic distribution.  Most of these libraries 
are developed on freedesktop.org (Xft, Xrender, etc.).


I have also been working on fixing the clipboard integration support to 
not require stealing ownership of the current selection, but this 
support requires the Xfixes extension.  Guess what?  Keith Packard 
created and maintains the Xfixes extension and it is developed at, you 
guessed it, freedesktop.org.  :)


I am interested in the work going on in the xlibs and xserver 
repositories, which are an autotooled build of most X libs and the X 
Server.  I was able to build all but Xft from CVS (need a newer version 
of FontConfig to build the latest Xft) using static libs, but it should 
be easy to get shared libs built again by adding -no-undefined flags.  I 
am very interested in pursuing this modern build system.  We won't use 
it immediately, but we could probably do a distribution from it in three 
to six months.


In the interest of getting moving as quickly as possible, I want to 
setup an old-style xc repository somewhere, based off an import of the 
XFree86.org CVS tree.  I have talked with the people at freedesktop.org 
and they are interested in hosting this.  It is also a tree that could 
be shared by other developers needing an old-style xc tree.  Perhaps 
some people will be interested in tracking XFree86.org patches in this 
tree, or committing patches that XFree86.org ignores.


I appreciate the offer from Xouvert for hosting a repository for us. 
However, there are an overwhelming number of reasons to setup on 
freedesktop.org, and using Xouvert as our main repository would require 
that we track freedesktop.org's development, which isn't something I 
have the time to do.  I really want to keep all of the development at 
one place so that I can get our developers access to one tree and be 
done with it.  Hosting at Xouvert would still require that at least I 
maintain access to freedesktop.org, if only to send up platform-specific 
patches.


In light of all of these points, I am making the decision to host 
ongoing Cygwin/X development at freedesktop.org.  It seems like the best 
fit for the project at this time.


Next Steps
==========
1) Keep the project web page and mailing list at cygwin.com.  We are a 
Cygwin port and a Cygwin app.  There is no reason to move our web page 
or mailing list.

2) Import the XFree86.org CVS tree into a repository on freedesktop.org. 
 I would appreciate help on this, but I could get to it within a few 
weeks if it hasn't been done by then.

3) Get Cygwin/X developers accounts on freedesktop.org (I would like 
Kensuke Matsuzaki and Alexander Gottwald, at a minimum, to have 
accounts).  I would like them to commit their patches directly so that I 
don't hold up their development.  As long as the tree builds, I can make 
 then make quick releases of their work.

4) Update the Cygwin/X documentation and web site to point to the new 
CVS repository.


Thanks to all of those that publicly and privately offered us 
hosting/bandwidth/rack space for the project.


Thanks for your time and understanding,

Harold