Since the creation of the X Window System, the one area that has received the least attention has been the sample server developed by the MIT staff of the X Consortium… We envisioned a book that would fill that gap in the available literature, one that would supply essential information to aid server developers, but also introduce the functions of the server to curious X developers and users. (From the preface.)

The largest part of this book, the first 11 chapters, talks about the basic structure of the sample server. The authors discuss such subjects as “Flow of Control,” “Regions,” “Event Processing,” “Resources,” “Fonts,” and “Wrappers.” Four chapters (13 to 16) go into the details of porting and tuning the sample server to specific display hardware or operating systems. Chapters 12 and 17 are devoted to the design of extensions for existing server implementations.

The book is definitely not for the novice X user. It is specifically intended for people who are already fairly knowledgeable about X and could use some help with the inside details. In the words of the authors, “We wrote this book on the assumption that its readers would have a basic understanding of the X Window System and of such concepts as the client-server model and the basics of interprocess communication. In addition knowledge of the C programming language is required, and knowledge of the UNIX operating system is helpful to understand the algorithms and code fragments we present.” For X developers, this volume is probably a good reference.