X Power Tools

Chris Tyler's Blog

X Power Tools Fri, Dec 28. 2007

O'Reilly says that my second book, X Power Tools, arrived back from the printer on Dec. 17th. Ingram Distribution is reporting stock, but Amazon and other on-line retailers haven't got a copy yet, and I haven't seen one yet either. So we're getting close...

This book has been an adventure. I started it in 2005 and wrote ten chapters before putting it aside (at the publisher's request) to write Fedora Linux. I'm glad I did take that little detour, because I'm very pleased with that book. By the time I got back to X Power Tools a lot had changed, and it took a lot of work to review and revise the existing chapters. Needless to say, the result is not what I had originally envisioned in 2005, but I like the way it's turned out.

This book is a solid guide to the X Window System -- the portable, network-based windowing system that underlies virtually all of the common Unix and Linux GUIs (including KDE and GNOME). Millions of people use X every day (and the installed base is growing steadily), and yet few understand it well. After a lot of activity in the late 80's and early 90's, X development stagnated for a few years, and all of the X books went out of print. But a renaissance in X development powered by the adoption of Linux and new font and compositing technologies has brought it to the forefront, and it's time for an up-to-date X book.

To compliment the publication of X Power Tools, I am writing a series of X articles this winter. This series includes guides to multiseat, LTSP, and COMPOSITE (Compiz/Compiz-fusion) systems -- stay tuned for more details!
Posted by Chris Tyler in Computing, Writing Comments: (5) Trackbacks: (0)

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#1 - TS 2007-12-28 09:44 - (Reply)

Chris, I'm looking forward to getting a copy. Your entries on multiseat systems have been invaluable to me. I currently run a three seat system at home, and it is such an efficient and pleasant configuration that I hope it becomes more widespread and easier to configure without various "try this" incantations to get it to work.

#2 - Tom W. 2007-12-29 01:44 - (Reply)

Chris,
I've been checking Amazon on a regular basis for your book to finally come out. I'm really looking forward to it. If it's even half as good as Fedora Linux and your X course, it's worth getting.

Shame it wasn't ready to be used as a text book for the course :-)

#3 - Federico Lucifredi 2008-01-09 19:26 - (Reply)

Hello Chris,
excellent book. I was disappointed by the lack of a Compiz section, but perhaps in the next edition ;-)

Very nice work - Kudos!

#4 - Chris Tyler 2008-01-09 20:05 - (Reply)

Thanks, Federico!

#5 - Walter Rogers 2008-03-20 18:16 - (Reply)

Chris,

Thanks for the X Power Tools book. It will remain on my bookshelf and is an excellent reference for future needs.

However, couldn't solve the one issue that I bought it for.

Can this be done?

A Windows app that runs in wine on Linux generates a graphic that I must screen capture (xwd, import, etc) to save. Is it possible to run this on a separate server (:2, :3, etc)and/or virtual terminal such that the file can be grabbed while INVISIBLE. For example, my kde desktop runs on vt7 and the other server on vt8.

It appears to me that screen capture only works on VISIBLE screens. Is there any way to hide this screen capture process from bothering me on my kde desktop?

I cannot access or re-write the Windows app running in wine.


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