XFast is a lightweight

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

that incorporates a display manager and a

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction ...

within the same process. It is portable and works on many devices (embedded devices, handhelds, set-top boxes,...). Here the communication between server layer and desktop layer can be made in classical way via TCP/IP but depending on the configuration and target system it can be done via shared memory too. The goal of project XFast is to have a very slim and fast graphical environment that contains both within the same project: a replacement for an X-server to give access to the graphics hardware and a WindowManager-like layer that offers user interface elements for applications and desktop management. Target systems for XFast are (not only) embedded systems with low resources where it is important to have a UI available with short loading times and low memory consumption. It currently runs at

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

GP2X The GP2X is a Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only. The GP2X is designed for homebrew developers as wel ...

and others. Within the XFast

windowing system In computing, a windowing system (or window system) is software that manages separately different parts of display screens. It is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) which implements the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) paradigm for ...

environment

GTK GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and propriet ...

and

Simple DirectMedia Layer Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is a cross-platform software development library designed to provide a hardware abstraction layer for computer multimedia hardware components. Software developers can use it to write high-performance computer games ...

applications are supported, so there is no need to re-write them. To use them special patched GTK and SDL versions are required, the related patch and build scripts are part of the XFast package. Beside of that XFast offers an own

GUI widget A graphical widget (also graphical control element or control) in a graphical user interface is an element of interaction, such as a button or a scroll bar. Controls are software components that a computer user interacts with through direct ...

library that can be used to write native applications for that windowing system. XFast is

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

that was licensed under the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

History

XFast is a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

and further development of the Xynth windowing system. It was branched from the original project in order to add some far reaching modifications to the environment that are not compatible with the idea behind the original project. The goal of this fork is to have a more compatible source base for both: low level

embedded systems An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' as ...

and desktop systems with bigger hardware resources. Like Xynth, it is not an implementation of the X11 protocol.

Features

* UDS (Unix Domain Sockets) for IPC * DMA (Direct Memory Access) for each client window surface * overlapped client window - server management * 8-way move, resize * runtime theme plugging support * image renderer for xpm, png and gif * antialiased fonts with freetype Library. * device independent basic low-level graphics library * rgbcolor, colorrgb, setpixel, getpixel, hline, vline, fillbox, putbox, putboxmask, getbox, putboxpart, * putboxpartmask, copybox, getsurface, setsurfacevirtual, setsurface * overlay drawing ability * rgbcolor_o, colorrgb_o, setpixel_o, getpixel_o, hline_o, vline_o, fillbox_o, putbox_o, putboxmask_o, * getbox_o, putboxpart_o, putboxpartmask_o, copybox_o, getsurface_o, setsurfacevirtual_o, setsurface_o * anti flicker double buffer rendering * keyboard, mouse, touchscreen drivers * remote desktop support * built-in window manager * low memory and CPU usage and footprint * in 1024x768 32 bits mode with 253 clients memory usage is ~2,5M * static linked binary is <125K

External links

XFast Project page
Embedded Linux Free desktop environments Desktop environments based on GTK

History

Features

See also

External links