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% Registration The New X Input System
%
% [2]Register/Submit Proposal James Gettys (jim.gettys@hp.com)
%
% Content A New X Window System Input System
The X Window System, for historical reasons,
has presumed a static configuration of screens
and input devices such as keyboards, mice,
joysticks, etc, configured by a file (the
dread \texttt{xorg.conf} or \texttt{XF86Config} file), under
control of a single individual.
But USB input devices are now hot-pluggable,
and users justifiably expect that they should
be able to plug them into a running system and
have them ``just work,'' without requiring
rebooting the Linux/UNIX kernel or restarting
the X server, having laboriously hand-edited
an X server configuration file. Instead, the X
server must move to a model where it is told
what to do by external agents, and do so in a
dynamic fashion, in response to a user's
action.
Additonally, projectors and other large
displays, calling out to be used by more than
one person at a time, are becoming
econonomical. Input devices themselves must be
able to be network devices, and the X server
become a multi-user server, if this vision is
to become a reality.
The issues faced break down into the following
categories:
\begin{itemize}
\item fundamental X architectural issues
\item XInput extension protocol issues
\item Integration with the desktop environment
\item X server implementation infrastructure issues
\item Security and authentication
\item Device discovery, authentication and association
\end{itemize}
Hotplug of display screens present similar
challenges, but such hardware is either rare
(PCMCIA/CARDBUS displays) or not yet widely
deployed (e.g.\ PCI-e), it is out of the scope
of this paper.
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