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Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

Title:DECWINDOWS 26-JAN-89 to 29-NOV-90
Notice:See 1639.0 for VMS V5.3 kit; 2043.0 for 5.4 IFT kit
Moderator:STAR::VATNE
Created:Mon Oct 30 1989
Last Modified:Mon Dec 31 1990
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:3726
Total number of notes:19516

1628.0. "Map without redrawing" by KERNEL::CARLETONL (The Urban Spaceman II) Wed Oct 25 1989 12:16

    Hi Guys,
    
    I have a little problem given to me by a customer. 
    
    What he wants to do is, having drawn his windows once on the screen
    and put them in "backing store", he wants them to map back onto
    the screen after a XRaiseWindow function call without redrawing
    themselves and their children.
    
    Can someone tell me if this is possible and if so what calls are
    required to make it work.
                                           
    Cheers
    
    Les
    

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1628.1Backing store is not guaranteedMELTIN::dickGvriel::SchoellerWed Oct 25 1989 12:4319
Les,

X11R3 lists backing store as a standard capability.  However, not all servers
support it and even if they do they may run out of backing store resources and
refuse the request.  Therefore, your customer can not uniformly rely on the
availablity of backing store.

If backing store is refused, your customer can try getting a pixmap and
drawing in that and then setting that pixmap as the background pixmap of the
window.

If the server is unable to create the requested pixmap then you are back
around to handling expose events.  What that really means is if you insist
on backing store (and/or pixmap creation) in order for your program to run
at all, you will have a higher probability of failure than if you also
include expose handling has your last chance mechanism.

Dick

1628.2< Only DECstation >EVTIS2::TISSERANDJean-Marc TISSERAND TSC FRANCEWed Oct 25 1989 12:5812
    None of the DIGITAL VAXstations running DECwindows V1.0 supports
    backing store. Only the DECstation MIT server's windows code includes
    conditional support for backing store and save under. 
    
    
    Hope this help.
    
    			Jean-Marc.
    
    

1628.3PSW::WINALSKICareful with that VAX, EugeneThu Oct 26 1989 15:329
RE: .0

Even on the DECstation, backing store is not guaranteed.  That is an intentional
feature of the X protocol.  X applications cannot rely on backing store always
being there.  They may still be called on at any time to redraw any arbitrary
part of their windows.

--PSW

1628.4KERNEL::CARLETONLThe Urban Spaceman IIFri Oct 27 1989 05:2710
    Okay,
    
    Backing store is not guaranteed, okay.
    
    But, can the cust avoid the redraw if backing store is available
    and given to him? (He is using DECstation)
    
    Les
    

1628.5You don't get the exposure event ...DAVIS::peterFri Oct 27 1989 10:413
If the server does provide backing store, then the application simply
doesn't get the exposure event, so it doesn't have to redraw.  Simple, eh?

1628.6FK::FREDSo sue me.Fri Oct 27 1989 20:2733
    It's a useless feature for an application that *needs* a bitmap backup.
    The application must always maintain it's own backing store regardless
    of the server ability to do it (!).
    
    Something that I have been talking to the DECwindows/VMS server
    developers about is how to make backing-store useful.  The idea
    is simple:
    
    	1) Need to be able to identify the feature availability from the
    	   application program.  This is either via a simple extension,
    	   or as part of the vendor information.
    
    	2) If backing store is requested as "always", then either:
    
    		a) The window cannot be created unless backing store
    		   is available for it.
    
    		   or
    
    		b) There is a way to query after window creation to
    		   determine the status of backing store on the window.
    
    	3) If backing store is granted, then it will never be withdrawn
    	   from the window for any reason (i.e. no memory panics on the
    	   backing-store pixmaps).
    
    Since backing-store may show up in the existing VMS servers in the next
    year, and since currently #3 is true.  Then all that is needed is to
    solve #1 or #2.  This will "probably" be thru a server extension (yuk)
    even if that means I have to write it... XUIS *needs* backing-store.
    
    _Fred