[RFC] Wayland driver development update

[Alexandros Frantzis]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 09:34:09AM +0100, Alexandre Julliard wrote:
> Alexandros Frantzis <alexandros.frantzis at collabora.com> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 10:55:20AM -0600, Zebediah Figura (she/her) wrote:
> >> Hello Alexandros,
> >
> > Hello Zebediah,
> >
> > Thank you very much for your response!
> >
> >> On 2/19/21 9:16 AM, Alexandros Frantzis wrote:
> >> > In previous discussions there were some concerns about accepting the
> >> > Wayland driver into staging, unless there was more confidence that it
> >> > would eventually be accepted upstream. What's the best way to get an
> >> > answer to this question of (eventual) upstream acceptance? Even in this
> >> > somewhat experimental state the driver is viable for many use cases.
> >> > What would be required to drive this effort forward on the path to
> >> > staging and, later, upstream inclusion?
> >> 
> >> Having a positive answer from Alexandre (viz. that a Wayland driver is 
> >> desirable) is one thing, and would be necessary for me to agree to 
> >> maintain the driver, but I'd also like to see the following before 
> >> accepting anything into wine-staging:
> >
> > Alexandre (Cc-ed and hi!), it would be great if we could get some input
> > about your views on the upstream inclusion of a Wayland driver.
> 
> I'm not opposed in principle to having a Wayland driver upstream. In
> fact I started writing one myself many years ago... It got stalled when
> I realized there was essentially no way to do decent window management,
> and that the best we could do would be the equivalent of X11 desktop
> mode, where we manage the windows ourselves. I don't have the impression
> that the situation has improved in the meantime, or that there is any
> interest in improving it.
> 
> That doesn't mean it couldn't go upstream, but then there will be
> constraints on what hacks and workarounds you'll be able to do. For
> instance, it will have to stick to protocols that are standardized
> across desktops, without adding compositor-specific workarounds, just
> like we don't allow window manager specific hacks on the X11 side
> otherwise it quickly becomes unmaintainable.

Hello Alexandre,

Thank you for the reply!

It's indeed an explicit goal of this effort to use only official and
widely supported protocols. Although some gaps remain, this approach has
got us quite far already.

>From the discussions so far, my understanding is that going through
wine-staging would the preferred path to upstreaming in this case. I
would like to confirm that my understanding is indeed correct, or
whether Zebediah or you would recommend some different approach.

Thanks,
Alexandros