Re: Xlib and file descriptors

[Lutz Sammer <johns98@gmx.net>]

Pierre Phaneuf wrote:
> 
> > For a more complicated game, you can put a large number of fds in there
> > to check for multiple sources of input. For example, if you decide your
> > game has a timebase of 10 ms, you can have your event loop always go
> > into a poll with the appropriate timeout and put all your fds in there
> > (network sockets, pipes, input, files). Then you can use this as a
> > cooperative scheduler, by making sure all your fds are set in
> > non-blocking mode and that you never read or write too much data at a
> > time. Then your loop will be able to know who's ready to write again,
> > who's ready to read again, thus keeping the program very responsive.
> 
> Speaking of file descriptors, does anybody know of a way to get the fd
> of the connection to the X server or at least a "pseudo-select" (like
> Svgalib has)?
> 
> I'd like my game to be totally blocking on the poll/select call, with
> everything expressed as file descriptors and with the timeout set for my
> timebase (if poll returns after a timeout, I send a timetick event and
> go back into the poll)...
> 

You can get it with ConnectionNumber. (man ConnectionNumber)

To get a constant timing base, use setitimer. This is also works fine
combined with select/poll.

Johns