The Python X Library

		       Version 0.3, 22 Aug 2000


*** Copyright

The Python X Library is released under GPL, see the file COPYING for
details.


*** Installation

Just copy the Xlib directory to some place in the module path.  E.g.:
     
   cp -r Xlib /usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/
  
Make sure that that directory exists before copying.

Alternatively, you can run programs from the distribution directory,
or changing the module path in programs.

There are a simple example program, implemented twice using both the
high-level interface and the low-level protocol.


*** Introduction

The Python X Library is intended to be a fully functional X client
library for Python programs.  It is written entirely in Python, in
contrast to earlier X libraries for Python (the ancient X extension
and the newer plxlib) which were interfaces to the C Xlib.

This is possible to do since X client programs communicate with the X
server via the X protocol.  The communication takes place over TCP/IP,
Unix sockets, DECnet or any other suitable streaming network protocol.
The C Xlib is merely an interface to this protocol, providing
functions suited for a C environment.

There are three advantages of choosing to implement a pure Python
library:

 * Integration:  The library can make use of the wonderful object
   system in Python, providing an easy-to-use class hierarchy.

 * Portability: The library will be usable on (almost) any computer
   which have Python installed.  A C interface could be problematic to
   port to non-Unix systems, such as MS Windows or OpenVMS.

 * Maintainability:  It is much easier to develop and debug native
   Python modules than modules written in C.


*** Project status

The low-level protocol and a rudimentary object oriented interface is
complete, implementing client-side X11R6.  This should be usable for
writing applications.  It runs at least on Linux using XFree86 as the
server, but should run on most Unices at least.

A resource database has been implemented and there is a framework for
adding X extension code.  Currently only the XTEST extension has been
implemented.  

There are most likely bugs, as only a rather small subset of all the
requests and methods have been tested.  The code is released anyway to
let other interested Python hackers have a look (and hopefully help
out with debugging and coding :).

There aren't any documentation for this yet except of the code, the
example programs and the standard X11 documentation.

See the file TODO for a detailed list of what is missing,
approximately ordered by importance.


*** Contact information

Mailing list: <python-xlib@ctrl-c.liu.se>

To subscribe, send a message to <python-xlib-request@ctrl-c.liu.se>
with the body "SUBSCRIBE".  The subject line is ignored, and can be
blank. 


Author email: Peter Liljenberg <petli@ctrl-c.liu.se>


There isn't any real web page yet, although new versions can be
downloaded from http://www.cendio.se/~petli/python-xlib/.