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| 1 | +|Build Status| |codecov.io| |Code Health| |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +The Python X Library |
| 4 | +==================== |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +Copyright |
| 7 | +~~~~~~~~~ |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +The main part of the code is |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +:: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | + Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Peter Liljenberg |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +Some contributed code is copyrighted by `the |
| 16 | +contributors <https://github.com/python-xlib/python-xlib/graphs/contributors>`__, |
| 17 | +in these cases that is indicated in the source files in question. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +The Python X Library is released under LGPL v2.1 or later (since 2016), |
| 20 | +see the file LICENSE for details. 0.15rc1 and before were released under |
| 21 | +GPL v2. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Requirements |
| 24 | +~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +The Python X Library requires Python 2.7 or newer. It has been tested to |
| 27 | +various extents with Python 2.7 and 3.3 through 3.5. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +Installation |
| 30 | +~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +The Python Xlib uses the standard setuptools package, to install run |
| 33 | +this command: |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +:: |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | + python setup.py install |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +See the command help for details: ``python setup.py install -h``. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +Alternatively, you can run programs from the distribution directory, or |
| 42 | +change the module path in programs. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +There's a simple example program, implemented twice using both the |
| 45 | +high-level interface and the low-level protocol. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +Introduction |
| 48 | +~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +The Python X Library is intended to be a fully functional X client |
| 51 | +library for Python programs. It is written entirely in Python, in |
| 52 | +contrast to earlier X libraries for Python (the ancient X extension and |
| 53 | +the newer plxlib) which were interfaces to the C Xlib. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +This is possible to do since X client programs communicate with the X |
| 56 | +server via the X protocol. The communication takes place over TCP/IP, |
| 57 | +Unix sockets, DECnet or any other streaming network protocol. The C Xlib |
| 58 | +is merely an interface to this protocol, providing functions suitable |
| 59 | +for a C environment. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +There are three advantages of implementing a pure Python library: |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +- Integration: The library can make use of the wonderful object system |
| 64 | + in Python, providing an easy-to-use class hierarchy. |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +- Portability: The library will be usable on (almost) any computer |
| 67 | + which have Python installed. A C interface could be problematic to |
| 68 | + port to non-Unix systems, such as MS Windows or OpenVMS. |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +- Maintainability: It is much easier to develop and debug native Python |
| 71 | + modules than modules written in C. |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +Project status |
| 74 | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +The low-level protocol is complete, implementing client-side X11R6. The |
| 77 | +high-level object oriented interface is also fully functional. It is |
| 78 | +possible to write client applications with the library. Currently, the |
| 79 | +only real application using Python Xlib is the window manager PLWM, |
| 80 | +starting with version 2.0. |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +There is a resource database implementation, ICCCM support and a |
| 83 | +framework for adding X extension code. Several extensions have been |
| 84 | +implemented; (RECORD, SHAPE, Xinerama, Composite, RANDR, and XTEST) |
| 85 | +patches for additions are very welcome. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +There are most likely still bugs, but the library is at least stable |
| 88 | +enough to run PLWM. A continuously bigger part of the library is covered |
| 89 | +by regression tests, improving stability. |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +The documentation is still quite rudimentary, but should be of some help |
| 92 | +for people programming with the Xlib. X beginners should first find some |
| 93 | +general texts on X. A very good starting point is |
| 94 | +http://www.rahul.net/kenton/xsites.html |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | +See the file TODO for a detailed list of what is missing, approximately |
| 97 | +ordered by importance. |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +Contact information |
| 100 | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +Author email: Peter Liljenberg petli@ctrl-c.liu.se |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +Mailing list: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group\_id=10350 |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +The Python X Library is a SourceForged project (currently migrating to |
| 107 | +GitHub). The project page is |
| 108 | +http://sourceforge.net/projects/python-xlib/. Source is available from |
| 109 | +that page as zip archive and from the `releases |
| 110 | +list <https://github.com/python-xlib/python-xlib/releases>`__. |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | +There isn't any real web page yet, only a derivative of this file. It is |
| 113 | +located at http://python-xlib.sourceforge.net/. It now also features the |
| 114 | +documentation for downloading or browsing. |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +.. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/python-xlib/python-xlib.svg?branch=master |
| 117 | + :target: https://travis-ci.org/python-xlib/python-xlib |
| 118 | +.. |codecov.io| image:: https://codecov.io/github/python-xlib/python-xlib/coverage.svg?branch=master |
| 119 | + :target: https://codecov.io/github/python-xlib/python-xlib?branch=master |
| 120 | +.. |Code Health| image:: https://landscape.io/github/python-xlib/python-xlib/master/landscape.svg?style=flat |
| 121 | + :target: https://landscape.io/github/python-xlib/python-xlib/master |
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