VMS DECwindows Guide to Xlib Programming

This document serves as a programming guide for developing applications using Xlib routines within the VMS DECwindows environment, adhering to the VAX calling standard. Intended for experienced programmers with basic graphics knowledge, the manual provides a comprehensive overview of Xlib's capabilities. It details the client-server interaction model, explaining how applications communicate with the X Window System server to manage various graphical resources.

Key topics covered include:

• Window Management: Creation, hierarchy, attributes, mapping, properties, and reconfiguration of windows.
• Graphics Characteristics: Defining and efficiently using graphics contexts for lines, fills, text, and cursors, along with routines for drawing points, lines, rectangles, arcs, and filling areas.
• Images and Pixmaps: Working with off-screen graphical resources.
• Event Handling: Processing various event types such as pointer motion, keyboard input, window state changes (circulation, configuration, creation, destruction, mapping, visibility), client communication, and exposure events, including event queue management.
• Error Handling: Understanding Xlib's asynchronous error reporting and debugging techniques.

The guide includes tutorials, descriptions of predefined Xlib data structures, and code examples to illustrate concepts, along with appendices listing routines, named colors, and fonts.