rfb Xorg drivers [PSARC/2008/555 FastTrack timeout 09/05/2008]

[Eric Sultan]

No, as with other graphics devices there is no particular mnemonic 
significance to the name.  A longer, more descriptive, name could have 
been chosen, though shorter names are more friendly when you have to 
type them.

efb was selected because:

  - It doesn't collide with anything we could find
  - It follows our general protocol of naming framebuffers as <something>fb
  - It's the first suitable letter in the alphabet that follows the .fb 
format

We tried to consider longer names that might have more descriptive 
significance but hadn't found one that resonated, and we expect that 
users will at times reference the device by this name and so, other 
things being equal, shorter is better.

Any rumor that efb is "eric's framebuffer" is just that: rumor.

  -- Eric

Garrett D'Amore wrote:
> Eric Sultan wrote:
>> It has been pointed out that VNC uses a remote framebuffer protocol 
>> named "rfb", and that the name might therefore not be a good choice 
>> for the Xorg-compliant driver for the XVR-50, -100, and -300.
>>
>> Accordingly, the project team has agreed to use a new name, efb, for 
>> this project.
>
> Just out of curiosity, is there any mnemonic for efb?  And, is there 
> any compelling reason why only three characters are chosen for the 
> name?  (I would have expected that in new-style Xorg that users have 
> little, if any, reason to be exposed to the names of the framebuffer 
> drivers.... hence a longer and more descriptive -- and perhaps less 
> likely to collide -- name seems like it might have been a good choice.)
>
> (No, I'm not asking the project to change their name, just pointing 
> out that if they wanted to pick a longer and more descriptive name, 
> that I think they *could* have.)
>
>    -- Garrett
>