From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 4 05:43:12 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2830216A41F for ; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 05:43:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from asmodai@in-nomine.org) Received: from smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.26]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7D9813C469 for ; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 05:43:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from asmodai@in-nomine.org) Received: from nexus.in-nomine.org (chronias.xs4all.nl [82.92.216.8]) by smtp-vbr6.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l645UmO5014145; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 07:30:49 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from asmodai@in-nomine.org) Received: from localhost (localhost.domini.in-nomine.org [127.0.0.1]) by nexus.in-nomine.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B7B9C40D; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 07:29:34 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Received: from nexus.in-nomine.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (nexus.domini.in-nomine.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 6Q9iq0-JGoym; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 07:29:31 +0200 (CEST) Received: by nexus.in-nomine.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1CDCBC40B; Wed, 4 Jul 2007 07:29:31 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 07:29:30 +0200 From: Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven To: Ben Kaduk Message-ID: <20070704052930.GU30825@nexus.in-nomine.org> References: <47d0403c0707031641j68c686b9sa4aa01119170ae59@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <47d0403c0707031641j68c686b9sa4aa01119170ae59@mail.gmail.com> Organisation: Ninth Circle Enterprises User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.15 (2007-04-06) Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: what is the definition of X11? X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:43:12 -0000 -On [20070704 01:39], Ben Kaduk (minimarmot@gmail.com) wrote: > Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11) seems to imply that the X > window system is a protocol (for the client/server communication?), so > then X11 is a version of this protocol, and Xorg and XFree86 are > implementations of this protocol (but I am loth to blindly trust > wikipedia). > > If this is true, then the above quote isn't quite right, as the > inclusion should somehow be the other way -- Xorg and XFree86 both > implement X11 (``include'' it in them). Of course the text could be > changed to say that the X11 protocol is used by many different > softwares, including both Xorg and XFree86, but that still seems a bit > awkward. > > Any comments from someone who knows more than I about what all these terms > mean? It's difficult, since you are now in the shady zone of accepted word usage that's a bit beyond the original definition. People typically say: X, X11 (since that has been, over the past 10 years at least, the dominant/only version left), X Windows (how wrong it may be), or X Window System. So when people say X or X11 they refer to their desktop/window manager commonly. Yes, pedantically X11 is just a protocol. If you want to be less ambiguous you could opt for 'X Window System' instead of X11, but in the Unix community X11/X is readily understood. And then the question becomes: would it make a difference for any newcomers? I wonder what X.org says actually. -- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven / asmodai イェルーン ラウフロック ヴァン デル ウェルヴェン http://www.in-nomine.org/ | http://www.rangaku.org/ When you blame others, you give up your power to change...