Skip to content

Comment on Frame – Linux X server in Assembly

Comments

The underlying graphics engine, the thing that puts pixels on the screen. X11 is 4 million lines of code, a beast very few can claim they understand.

Working on it:

https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver

And they also deleted old code too. A lot of the old code could probably be removed, but is it really that relevant whether you have 4 millions line of code or 2 million lines of code? C is in my opinion too overbose. Rust is even worse. Which language would yield fewer lines of code without speed penalty? C is king largely because of the speed gains. We don't see people use python for an xserver.

Nim gives me similar performance to C++ in generally half the LOC.

For example I had Codex port Kiwi Cassowary C++ to Nim: https://github.com/elcritch/kiwiberry

The biggest problem with Xorg refactoring is that the entire surface area, every non-static function, is module API and there are closed-source modules everyone relies on (mostly Nvidia).

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.