On Mon, May 26, 2003 at 02:01:27PM -0700, Jamie Zawinski wrote: > Branden Robinson wrote: > > > > [There was no need to mail me privately about this; the debian-x mailing > > list is a perfectly reasonable forum for such queries.] > > I'm not on the debian-x mailing list, nor was I even aware it existed; > I saw your message on one of the billion Usenet mirrors that such > announcements go to. [...] > Yours was, however, the only email address in the message I saw, so I > didn't know who else to ask. If you read the message through a mail->news gateway, please identify which one to the debian-x mailing list, since it is obviously obscuring the source of the message and possibly other important information as well. > > It surprises me that you were apparently unaware that the string > > "xscreensaver" refers to more than just your own software. > > I am very well aware of that, but the concept of "adding Xinerama > support to the X server" didn't make any more sense to me than "adding > Xinerama support to the xscreensaver client", so given two confusing > statements, I assumed the latter was the one that was meant. I don't know why it wouldn't make sense. X protocol extensions require support on both the X client and X server side, or they cannot be used. As a more recent example, code based on Keith Packard's RENDER extension consists of header files describing the protocol, a client-side library, and patches to the KDrive and XFree86 X servers so that they can understand and act on the protocol extension requests coming across the wire from the client. I feel certain that a man with as many years of experience writing X clients as you have has no difficulty with these concepts. So, it makes perfect sense to say "add Xinerama support to the X server"; X servers without support for the Xinerama protocol extension will not expose the features of that extension, and clients connecting to that server will be unable to take advantage of them. > > If that is true, you should probably also know that this determination > > of name was not made by the Debian Project, but, I believe, by the X > > Consortium a decade ago or more. > > FYI, the use of "xscreensaver" as the name of the client program > predates its use as the name of a server extension by several years. I'll take your word for it; I also assume that since you claim prior awareness of the "MIT-SCREEN-SAVER"[1] extension, which has existed for many years, that you're not asserting trademark protection in the term. > > * When packages are actually part of the Debian distribution (whether > > the stable, testing, or unstable branches), their source code can be > > found via the query interface at: > > http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages > > So it is. For what it's worth, I never would have found this by looking > at debian.org. In fact, I still can't guess where it might be linked to > from your Site Map page. Searching for "xscreensaver" doesn't find > that, either. If you're having problems using the Debian website, I suggest clicking on the link at the bottom of most pages -- including the one to which I directed you -- which says "See the Debian contact page for information on contacting us." That links to: <http://www.debian.org/contact>, which has a link "Problems with Debian infrastructure". You would not be the first person to have recommendations for improving the Debian website, so I urge you to make those recommendations to the appropriate parties. > Thank you for the clarification about the patch, needlessly snide though > it was. Not that I care, but what exactly did I do to warrant such an > obnoxious response when I merely asked two very simple and direct > questions? Are you always like this, or am I on your shit list already? > As far as I can recall, we've never spoken before, but maybe it made a > bigger impression on you than on me. We have in fact corresponded before, and you were about as tiresomely dismissive then as now. I have grown accustomed to the likelihood that you ceaselessly search the web for mentions of your own name and waste little time contacting those who utter it. I could offer sincere suggestions for more productive uses of your time, but no doubt they would, as you note, leave a feeble impression on you. I doubt that much can compete with the reverence you feel when looking in the mirror. (Feel free to interpret that last statement as obsequious flattery if you like -- I suspect the intentions of the author have little impact on your interpretations.) In any case, this dialogue is fast becoming a waste of my own time, so kindly refrain from mailing me privately again. If you have further questions about Debian's packaging of XFree86, the best address to use is <debian-x@lists.debian.org>. [1] at least, that's what "xdpyinfo" calls it on my XFree86 installation -- G. Branden Robinson | No math genius, eh? Then perhaps Debian GNU/Linux | you could explain to me where you branden@debian.org | got these... PENROSE TILES! http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Stephen R. Notley
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