Adrian Nye

Least likely to be in the reference library of people who currently write code for a living, and most likely to be in the library of those who started out when it was X 10 (yes, Virgina, there was an X10, and even worse, there were others before it). I owned an earlier version of this protocol reference, but updated it to this one when it came out.

I'm betting there's an X Windows Guides series on LT. If not, I might make one. In any case, this one comes first.

One of the many things I love about O'Reilly is that each and every technical book they published has a listing showing editions and publication dates. You never have to guess.

If you honestly want your X Windows software to just always work, and you don't want to have to wonder where it's going to run, then writing it all in the low level Xlib is the best thing to do. I have software I wrote in the middle or late eighties that has only been revised ONCE (X 10 changed to X 11). It still show more works.

The Xlib Programming Manual, and its companion, the Xlib Reference Manual, were my constant companions in those long ago times. show less

The Xlib and X Toolkit Intrinsics had had enough changes that this brief update was a life saver. This book is even subtitled: R6 Update for the R5 Editions of Volumes 1, 2, 4, and 5. Time moves on, of course. Other than the color of the current cover (this one is blue, mine is a sort of mulberry), the book is probably the same.

Still, if you're looking for greater detail, still, here's a great start over on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System_protocols_and_architecture

I'm show more about half way through with the X Window books, but entirely through with this series. Those were remarkable times. show less

The third edition (this one) was an important update, providing internationalization reference and other pages. If you are still working from a second or earlier edition, you should get this version while you still can. Although I'm a fan of eBooks in many cases, I strongly recommend paper for reference manuals.