Re: He's completely missed the point of everything being a file in unix
"can you treat a window or an edit box like a file in Linux?"
a file would not be fit-for-purpose for a UI element, just like it's not fit-for-purpose for a single keystroke. however, the connection to the X server is DEFINITELY a file underneath the hood, either a pipe or a socket (really in the POSIX world it could be a serial port and the library would still work).
Yeah I've done low-level X coding. writing my own toolkit even. But my project doesn't "make ink" in El Reg I guess because it's not "sexy" enough, doesn't use "new language of the month", isn't controversial, etc.. [and I keep having to adapt to the moving targets caused by OTHER toolkit/WM makers, who can't just keep system settings as it was, for example, and must change and change again to adopt their OWN way of telling you what colors to use...]
window identifiers are like handles. that's just for events, though, to designate 'who gets it'. Processing events, drawing, etc. is up to your code to perform. And it's VERY low level.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
