Design of eXcursion version 2 for Windows, Windows NT, and Windows 95
John T. Freitas, James G. Peterson, Scot A. Aurenz, Charles P. Guldenschuh, Paul J. Ranauro · Digital technical journal · 1996
Version 2 of the eXcursion product is a complete rewrite of the successful Windows-based X server software package. Based on release 6 of the X Window System version 11 protocol, the new product runs on Microsoft’s Windows, Windows NT, and Windows 95 operating systems. The X server is one of several components that compose this package. The other components are X Image Extension, the control panel (which constitutes the user interface for product configuration), the error logger, the application launcher, and the setup program. An interprocess communication facility enables the eXcursion components to communicate in a uniform fashion under all three operating systems. A unique server design using object-oriented programming techniques integrates the X graphics context with the Windows device context into a combined state management facility. The resulting implementation maximized graphics performance while conserving Windows resources, which are in limited supply under the 16-bit version of the Windows operating system. The control panel was coded completely in the C++ programming language, thus making full use of the Microsoft Foundation Class library to minimize development time and to ensure consistency with the Windows user interface paradigm.