KDE's KWin Compositor Sees Near Total Rewrite Of Compositing Code.

[dragon321]

I hope full screen undirect support will land again in new code. Turning whole compositor off is simply annoying. It should probably stay as option unlike in GNOME where there is no option to disable compositing. It's not very nice to see compositor turning off when running some SDL application.

[f0rmat]

What about deduplicate more relevant code between desktop environments and window managers? Compositing stuff might be one of them, for example.

I do not know enough about that, but if it is possible, it sounds like a really good idea. Redundant repetitive duplication is always bad...be green...recycle code.

[zoomblab]

How is it proven that the rewrite is better in terms of achieving the stated outcomes and not regressing the maintainability of the code?

Honest question. I don't want to say that it doesn't deliver the promise. However as it is known all or most programmers suffer from the reinvent / rewrite bug. We commonly think that our code is better. In most cases it is a symptom of not understanding what and why the code was written is a certain way in the first place.

[Alexmitter]

I hope full screen undirect support will land again in new code. Turning whole compositor off is simply annoying. It should probably stay as option unlike in GNOME where there is no option to disable compositing. It's not very nice to see compositor turning off when running some SDL application.

Disabling compositing so your game runs well sounds more like a bug then something you should so. Gnome handles that correctly.

[WorBlux]

Well, sometimes you have written a great code in the past but circumstances have changed slowly in the following years making it impossible to justify a rewritting. But then after some time you will realise that circumstances have changend drastically over time (accumulated) and that the original code does not fit anymore. Any new addition is just a pain. That is the major reason of a rewrite. e.g. X

Anyone working on large codebases must have experienced it. You can avoid major rewrites by designing the structure flexible from the beginning but often this makes it way more complicated and often the project is small and it would be seen as bloated....

Exactly, something like multiple monitors w/ different refresh rates would have been a strange thing to expect 15-20 years ago. And it's pretty cool that it's working now.

[vsteel]

Why do all the re-tards on this forum always bring up the nonsensical argument of "do the programming yourself"? It's obvious that you guys understand so little about computers that there's zero possibility that you were even Linux users.

Two reasons.
1. Because that is how open source works. If you feel that something needs changed you have the ability to do that. You might be lacking a programming skill or knowledge of the project but there is nothing in your way but you from learning and fixing what you think needs fixed. With a closed project, you don't have the ability to make changes no matter how simple.

2. You can think of the open source projects like someone cooking a meal for you. They work hard in the kitchen to make you a seven course meal and you feel that it isn't quite up to your standards. You have no idea how much work that person put in to give you something for free. They tried their best and the result is good, but maybe it isn't excellent because they ran out of something and had to improvise. Maybe they had to start over because they learned later on that some of the people coming were lactose intolerant so the direction of the meal had to change (rewrite of the code). People can take it personal when someone who doesn't do any of the work and no knowledge of the details comes in and flippantly criticizes it.

I am sure there has been a time or two in your life you were doing something and someone was criticizing what you were doing and you got mad and said "if you don't like it, you do it." Keep in mind there is a difference between constructive criticism and being a jerk.

[numacross]

Exactly, something like multiple monitors w/ different refresh rates would have been a strange thing to expect 15-20 years ago. And it's pretty cool that it's working now.

Matrox introduced G400 which supported dual VGA output in 1999, and analogue monitors were capable of varying refresh rates. For LCDs seeing anything other than 60Hz has been unusual since fairly recently.

[remenic]

Why do all the re-tards on this forum always bring up the nonsensical argument of "do the programming yourself"? It's obvious that you guys understand so little about computers that there's zero possibility that you were even Linux users.

This specific "re-tard' is a software developer himself, has worked on Kopete, Clearlooks and a number of other projects. My full time job is software development. So I think I know what I'm talking about, thank you very much.

[bug77]

Two reasons.
1. Because that is how open source works. If you feel that something needs changed you have the ability to do that. You might be lacking a programming skill or knowledge of the project but there is nothing in your way but you from learning and fixing what you think needs fixed. With a closed project, you don't have the ability to make changes no matter how simple.

So, find a bug in KDE, learn C++. Find a bug in Gnome, learn C. Find a bug in your game, learn Unity/C# or Android development. So simple, why didn't i think of that?

The point of open source is anyone having the time and the skills can help. Not that everyone hit by a bug should be directed to learn how to program or shut up.
Hell, there are companies built around open source code bases precisely because the users need support and bug fixing, despite the code itself being freely available.

[tildearrow]

I'm curious if that rewrite will make tildearrow s kwin-lowlatency unnecessary (i guess he will be relieved to have this work being "over" if that is true? ^^)

It means I would have to rename the thing to something like kwin-unredirect, and keep it up until they bring full-screen unredirection back...