Jump to content

Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.139.254.117 (talk) at 04:18, 18 December 2016 (split out features). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
"Ice Cubed" redirects here. For the form of water ice, see Ice cube. For the high speed train, see ICE 3. For other uses, see Ice cube (disambiguation).

In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM or I39L short for "I", 39 letters and "L")[1] is a communication standard for the X Window System. It specifies a protocol for clients of a common X server. It is primarily used for communication between normal[clarification needed] clients and the window manager.

History

It was designed by David S. H. Rosenthal of the MIT X Consortium in 1988.

Version 1.0 was released in July 1989 and version 2.0 in early 1994.

Background

X deliberately[why?] specifies "mechanism, not policy". As such, an additional specification beyond the X protocol itself was needed for client interoperation[why?].

Features

The ICCCM specifies cut and paste buffers, window manager interaction, session management, how to manipulate shared resources and how to manage device colours. These low-level functions are generally implemented[why?] within widget toolkits or desktop environments. This isolates application programmers from working directly with the ICCCM itself, as this functionality is delegated to the implementing toolkit.

Criticism

The ICCCM is notorious for being ambiguous and difficult to correctly implement.[2] Furthermore, some parts are obsolete or no longer practical to implement.[3]

Efforts to update and clarify the ICCCM for current needs have resulted in the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH), which has gained fairly broad acceptance and continues to be extended as the need arises.[citation needed]

List of Window Managers that are ICCCM Compliant

References

  1. ^ The X-Windows Disaster Don Hopkins, UNIX-HATERS Handbook
  2. ^ SLUG Mailing List Archives - [chat] Re: [SLUG] Ximian / Gnome and Xalf
  3. ^ Re: ICCCM compliance?
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inter-Client_Communication_Conventions_Manual&oldid=755460271"