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From: geb@amber.Rational.COM (Gary Barnes)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.windows.x
Subject: Ada reimplementation of the MIT C Xlib
Keywords: Ada, X Window System, Xlib, X Library, X
Message-ID: <752@igor.Rational.COM>
Date: 31 Oct 90 17:00:07 GMT
Sender: news@Rational.COM
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List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


An Ada reimplementation of the MIT C-based Xlib is available via
anonymous ftp on expo.lcs.mit.edu.  There are two files:

	contrib/ada.xlib.README		4Kb
	contrib/ada.xlib.tar.Z		2.9Mb

This Ada version of Xlib is compatible with X11R4.  This is a beta
release.  The release number is 5_6_0.  The sources are about 10Mb
when they are restored from the tar file.  3Mb of that is
PostScript documentation.  Makefiles and Imakefiles are included.
This is a complete reimplementation of Xlib; it is not an Ada skin
over the C libraries.  This leads to a more efficient interface,
better type safety, proper behavior with Ada tasking, etc.

The Ada Xlib was done at Rational and it compiles and runs with the
Rational native R1000 Ada compiler (Delta1 (D_10_20_0) and Delta2
(D_12_1_1) versions) and with the TeleSoft TeleGen2 68k Unix compiler
(version 1.4) under SunOS (version 4.0.3 or later).  It is currently
being ported to other targets by a few groups around the world.

Included with the source code are PostScript files for three
documents.  There is a Porting Guide, a Differences Guide, and a full
Xlib manual.  The Porting Guide details the steps for porting the
library to new machine architectures and operating systems.  The
Differences Guide points out the differences between the Ada and C
languages and libraries.  The Xlib manual is an Ada "translation" of
the MIT manual for the C library.

The copyright on the Ada Xlib is the same as for the MIT library.
The code is freely redistributable for any purpose.  Rational expects
to maintain the Ada Xlib in much the same way as MIT maintains the C
Xlib.  There is a mailing list for interested parties (Xlib@Rational.Com),
a mailing list for reporting bugs (Xlib-Bugs@Rational.Com), and an
address for requesting changes to the mailing lists
(Xlib-Request@Rational.Com). 

This is just the Xlib layer of the X Window System.  There are
currently no Intrinsics or Toolkit layers provided.  (That's the next
project.)  Rational will be working with SAIC and Unisys to come up
with common Xlib, Intrinsics, and Toolkit interfaces. 

Gary E. Barnes				geb@Rational.Com