Understanding the working of X11 from the ground up (2017)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderPersonally, my favorite explanation of X11 is found on page 139 of the Unix Hater's Handbook http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf "A truly portable X application is required to act like the persistent customer in Monty Python’s “Cheese Shop” sketch, or a grail seeker in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Even the simplest applications must answer many difficult questions" Read the original for the hilariously accurate dialog that follows…
Author here. I stopped working on this a few years ago, so now's as good a time as any for an overly-long, rambly, unedited retrospective. When I started this, I was working on GNOME's window manager full-time, and wanted to learn intricately how X11's drawing model worked, so over the course of a few weeks in a hotel room, I recreated large parts of X11's drawing model in a web browser, fixing artifacts as I went along, until I feel…
Actually embedding an X server in the article is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.
Author here. I haven't updated this project in a few years. I burned out on it almost immediately. I wrote a little retrospective for it on here before, the last time it was posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21041340 In the days since, I've joined the games industry, fell in love with it there, and am working a bit more on more video game-focused content: https://noclip.website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnxs6CR6Zrk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rCRsOLiO7k If anybody has any questions about game…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 1702
- Total comments
- 337
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-07-11 | XPlain – Explaining X11 for the rest of usFirst breakout | emillon | 329 | 65 |
| 2014-07-15 | Xplain – Explaining X11 with an interactive X11 browser implementation | albertzeyer | 76 | 2 |
| 2015-10-14 | Explaining X11 for the rest of us | davidw | 19 | 1 |
| 2016-07-06 | Xplain – Explaining X11 for the rest of usBest thread | b3h3moth | 456 | 44 |
| 2016-07-07 | Xplain – Explaining X11 for the rest of us | JoshTriplett | 2 | 0 |
| 2019-09-22 | Understanding the working of X11 from the ground up (2017)Hall induction | signa11 | 443 | 132 |
| 2020-08-05 | Explanations – Play, Don't Show | ProfDreamer | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-08-18 | Xplain – Explaining X11 for the rest of us (2017) | pcr910303 | 326 | 89 |
| 2022-03-10 | Explanations – Play Don't Show | graderjs | 9 | 0 |
| 2023-01-09 | Explanations: Play Don't ShowLatest 20+ point return | signa11 | 41 | 4 |