From: Johan Karlberg <wlfshmn@earthlink.net>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 11:14:32 +0200 (CEST)

Regarding GGI and Xfree 4.0, Forwarded.

This is the relevant mail from the discussion that took place, the thread
more or less died after this letter.

Johan Karlberg.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 11:56:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark Vojkovich <mvojkovi@ucsd.edu>
Reply-To: devel@XFree86.Org
To: devel@XFree86.Org
Subject: Re: ROM BIOS

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999 core@triton.net wrote:

> Has GGI not already implemented a non-os-specific non-architecture-specific
> multiscreen capable, standardized video card interface?
> I have noticed that no discussion of GGI has taken place recently on this
> list, I am fairly new to this list...

   Perhaps that's because most people here thing GGI is a bad
idea?

> 
> GGI also provides transparent acceleration(currently 2D only), and because it
> exists in kernel space it would allow direct access to 3D accel functions,
> which I beleive would be out of place in the Xserver... I think that X should
> move towords implementing a single server ontop of GGI, and that all of the
> driver development should move to ggi, this would be congruent with all other
> modern OSes approach to every other hardware device sound(OSS/ALSA),
> networking, etc...

   The fastest approach is having the Xserver access the hardware
directly.  GGI advocates don't understand the performance implications
of what they are suggesting.


> 
> Also for those who might be against this, GGI is a very small kernel module,
> most of its support(acceleration) resides in user space as a shared library,
> and it is orginized is a modular fasion, very compatible with XFree86 4.0's
> structure...
> 
> Any comments? please no flames about non-portability, they are simply not
>               true...

   I gave the GGI folks a personal invitation to join XFree86 
to work on a GGI driver for XFree86 4.0.  They declined.

   I'm certainly not going to write a GGI driver; I don't even
like GGI.  And if the GGI folks don't even want to write a GGI driver
for XFree86 4.0...


				Mark.