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Why a Special X11-Interface?

Although it initially was an explicit goal to make the library independent of X11, there are some strong arguments voting for a subset of functions adapted to X11 features. Here are some of them. Taken these arguments into account I decided to create an additional ``special'' set of functions that allow uncomplicated usage under the X11 window system, similar to the Xlib-function X11DrawText(). The approach used in V. 0.3-beta has been a quite elegant solution to the problems considered above. Unfortunately, it has been too slow to be usable in practice. Furthermore, caching in the X11-server produced some overhead and difficulties. According to my experiences server caching would only be advantageous for very large characters such as 500 bp and more. As a consequence, the X11 interface is redesigned and reduced to a simple wrapper which deals with all but the last of the above items, from t1lib V. 0.4-beta up.


next up previous contents index
Next: Initialization of the X11-Interface Up: The X11-Interface Previous: The X11-Interface   Contents   Index
2004-10-04