The latest issue of the Wayland-protocols package, version 1.35, has been published. This package contains a collection of protocols and extensions that complement the basic Wayland protocol, providing the necessary capabilities for building composite servers and user interfaces. You can find more information about this release here.
Each protocol within the Wayland-protocols package undergoes three phases: development, testing, and stabilization. Protocols move from the unstable category to the staging branch after development, and finally to the stable category after testing. The Staging protocols can already be utilized in composite servers and applications where the associated functionality is required. Unlike the Unstable category, protocols in the Staging phase cannot make compatibility-breaking changes. However, major version updates may occur if significant problems are discovered during testing.
In this new version, the Tablet-v2 protocol for organizing input from graphic tablets has been updated. Additionally, a new protocol called Alpha-Modifier has been introduced, allowing clients to adjust surface transparency levels and perform operations related to transparency on the composite server side. Moreover, a recommendation has been added to the XDG-SHELL protocol, advising against displaying decorations beyond window boundaries when using a mosaic window layout.
Currently, the Wayland-Protocols package includes several stable protocols that ensure backward compatibility:
- “viewPorter” – allows clients to scale and clip surface edges on the server side.
- “Presentation-time” – ensures proper video display.
- “XDGSHELL” – provides an interface for creating and interacting with surfaces as windows, enabling movement, rotation, resizing, etc.
- “linux-dmabuf” – facilitates the sharing of multiple video cards using DMA-Buf technology.