X.Org AutoRepeat Option Restored After 14 Year Hiatus

[phoronix]

Phoronix: X.Org AutoRepeat Option Restored After 14 Year Hiatus

The X11 AutoRepeat option is for setting the auto repeat behavior of a keyboard to engage a configurable number of times a key will repeat per second after crossing a configurable delay threshold. While somewhat of an obscure feature, AutoRepeat is coming back after being on hiatus since 2006...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xorg-Input-AutoRepeat

[betam4x]

I stand by my argument that Xorg would be fine if appropriate development efforts were put into improving the state of things. Folks who work on Wayland related code are quickly finding out what happens when you try to reinvent a very old wheel. Note that I've not objectively biased: if Wayland would have had a flawless release, I'd switch in a heartbeat. However, to this day, my 4 year old NVIDIA GPU works flawlessly with X11, but does not work with Wayland, with the possible exception of the most bleeding edge of GNOME. Furthermore, Most of the apps/games I use/play still require Xorg to work, and Xwayland does not do hardware compositing on Wayland for NVIDIA users. I actually cannot fault NVIDIA for this: the Wayland team (more specifically, but not more/less relevant, those who write the compositors) should have taken this along with many other issues into consideration.

In a few hours of work I was able to write a simple cross platform (ARM/x86, 4 different GPU vendors including NVIDIA/AMD) simple framework that shows a mouse pointer and allows me to move/manipulate window decorations.

[mcqigo]

I stand by my argument that Xorg would be fine if appropriate development efforts were put into improving the state of things.

Yeah and that's a whole point why wayland is there. Not enough developers interested. I can't argue against that.

[Britoid]

I stand by my argument that Xorg would be fine if appropriate development efforts were put into improving the state of things. Folks who work on Wayland related code are quickly finding out what happens when you try to reinvent a very old wheel. Note that I've not objectively biased: if Wayland would have had a flawless release, I'd switch in a heartbeat. However, to this day, my 4 year old NVIDIA GPU works flawlessly with X11, but does not work with Wayland, with the possible exception of the most bleeding edge of GNOME. Furthermore, Most of the apps/games I use/play still require Xorg to work, and Xwayland does not do hardware compositing on Wayland for NVIDIA users. I actually cannot fault NVIDIA for this: the Wayland team (more specifically, but not more/less relevant, those who write the compositors) should have taken this along with many other issues into consideration.

In a few hours of work I was able to write a simple cross platform (ARM/x86, 4 different GPU vendors including NVIDIA/AMD) simple framework that shows a mouse pointer and allows me to move/manipulate window decorations.

There's no fixing X.org, its protocol is fundaementally archaic that if you wanted to fix it, you'd probably end up with something like Wayland anyway. The Xorg developers have stated it's not really fixable, and I'm sure they know best given they work on the thing.

On Nvidia, that is entirely Nvidias fault. Like X, Wayland only defines the relationship between the clients and the display server, however what Wayland compositors have relied on is moving managing graphics hardware from userspace to the standard kernel APIs (e.g. KMS, DRM, GBM etc). Nvidia does not want to implement these standard kernel interfaces.

[blacknova]

On Nvidia, that is entirely Nvidias fault. Like X, Wayland only defines the relationship between the clients and the display server, however what Wayland compositors have relied on is moving managing graphics hardware from userspace to the standard kernel APIs (e.g. KMS, DRM, GBM etc). Nvidia does not want to implement these standard kernel interfaces.

It is useless to dedicate resources to support constantly moving target. It is simple business sense. Especially if kernel devs from time to time go out of their way to break in kernel API just to screw NVIDIA.

[Delgarde]

The Xorg developers have stated it's not really fixable, and I'm sure they know best given they work on the thing.

And significantly, most of the core Wayland developers are current or former Xorg developers... they're the ones who've decided that the X11 protocols are past their use-by date, and that their time is better spent building a replacement than in trying to keep the old system alive. They're the ones who have put a tonne of work into XOrg over the years, and concluded from their experience that it just wasn't sustainable.

[Britoid]

It is useless to dedicate resources to support constantly moving target. It is simple business sense. Especially if kernel devs from time to time go out of their way to break in kernel API just to screw NVIDIA.

Huh. There is no going out the way to purposely break things. There is no stable in-kernel ABI. If you want something supported by the Linux kernel, the best place to be is in the upstream kernel. What Nvidia does is completely unsupported by the upstream kernel, Nvidia is aware of this and knows how to solve it, but they don't because they hate Linux.

[Britoid]

And significantly, most of the core Wayland developers are current or former Xorg developers... they're the ones who've decided that the X11 protocols are past their use-by date, and that their time is better spent building a replacement than in trying to keep the old system alive. They're the ones who have put a tonne of work into XOrg over the years, and concluded from their experience that it just wasn't sustainable.

Yeh but obviously some guy on Phoronix knows better.

[Volta]

It is useless to dedicate resources to support constantly moving target. It is simple business sense. Especially if kernel devs from time to time go out of their way to break in kernel API just to screw NVIDIA.

It's useless to dedicate resources to trash like nvidia. If nvidia doesn't want to follow then screw it.

[Veto]

In a few hours of work I was able to write a simple cross platform (ARM/x86, 4 different GPU vendors including NVIDIA/AMD) simple framework that shows a mouse pointer and allows me to move/manipulate window decorations.

Hey. Keep on trucking. You are almost there!

All those former X.org developers don't know what they are talking about and just want to work on the next fancy thing. And they hate Nvidia too.