# Open issues — node-x11 and ntk Triage notes, refreshed whenever the picture has moved enough to mislead. Audited **2026-07-31** against node-x11 `722a0df` (v3.4.0 released) and ntk `7016021` (#130/#131/#132 merged). Covers both repos, because they are worked on together and half the entries below only make sense as a pair. Previous pass was 2026-07-25 and covered node-x11 only. Since then **five of its ten entries closed** — #85 and #195 by the flow-control work, #171 and #183 on 2026-07-26, and #179 today — and **four new issues were filed** (#243–#246). Everything below has been re-checked against current code rather than carried forward. --- Since the audit, [#244](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/244) (output buffering) has been implemented — opt-in `bufferRequests`, see "Buffering the output" in `docs/README.md`. # node-x11 — 8 open ## Worth doing next ### [#243](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/243) — FamilyWild cookies never match, and a failed match silently drops auth (2026-07-31) **Verified against current master.** `parseXauth` writes `cookie.type`; the match loop at `lib/auth.js:97` tests `typeToName[cookie.family]`, a property nothing ever sets. `typeToName[undefined]` is never `'Wild'`, so the wildcard branch is dead and only the exact `(type, address)` pair can match. When nothing matches — wild-only file, hostname mismatch in a container, stale entry — `lib/auth.js:101` falls through to `{ authName: '', authData: '' }` and connects anonymously, so the only symptom is the server's generic "Authorization required" with nothing saying a cookie file was read. Two-line logic fix plus a diagnostic. Reproducible with no X server at all, since the failure is in cookie selection. **Top pick.** ### [#245](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/245) — XISelectEvents and XI2 event delivery (2026-07-31) `lib/ext/xinput.js` implements four requests — XI1 `GetExtensionVersion` and `ListInputDevices`, XI2 `XIQueryVersion` and `XIQueryDevice` — and no `XISelectEvents` (46), no GenericEvent parser. So a client can enumerate devices in detail, *including the Scroll classes the reply parser already decodes*, and never hear from them. All input arrives as core events, where a touchpad's smooth scroll is flattened into button 4/5 presses and touch, pressure and tilt do not exist. The delivery half is already built: `geEventParsers` keyed by extension major opcode (`lib/xcore.js:167`), dispatch at `:349`, and `lib/ext/present.js:180` as the worked example of an extension registering its parser. Largest item here, but well-scoped and additive. ### [#246](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/246) — ESM bundling throws at runtime (2026-07-31) `esbuild --format=esm` builds cleanly and the bundle then throws `Dynamic require of "events" is not supported` — the worst failure shape, because it surfaces at deploy. Node itself is fine both ways; this is purely bundler output. `node:`-prefixed requires do **not** help. Split it: the `exports` map is three lines, no behaviour change, and removes the deprecated directory-main — fold it into any other PR. The real fix is converting `lib/` to ESM sources, which is a major, and the tempting shortcut does not work: a thin ESM wrapper over CJS still `require()`s builtins underneath, which is the exact failing construct. ## Old, and closeable rather than workable ### [#152](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/152) — X11 Server (2017) Someone trying to write an X server, stuck on the handshake reply. **The thing they wanted now exists**: `lib/xserver/` is a working pure-JS X server with RENDER, its own `DESIGN.md`, and hermetic test suites in both repos. Answer with a pointer and close. ### [#91](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/91) — Grabbed key events not reaching an nw.js app (2015) Environment-specific, and the reported behaviour is what a keyboard grab is *for*: grabbed input goes to the grabbing client, not the app's own window. Too little information to resolve; close as stale. ### [#62](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/62) — Arbitrary polygon rendering example (2014) Wants a triangulation library glued to `Render.AddTraps`/`Triangles`. Note ntk solved the underlying problem in `lib/trapezoid.js` — polygon to trapezoids, non-zero and even-odd, used for every 2d path fill and vector glyph — so this is now only an example, and arguably one that belongs in ntk. ### [#50](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/50) — Shaders (2014) `ProgramString`/`BindProgram` (ARB assembly) landed with #218. Missing: `ProgramEnvParameter*`/`ProgramLocalParameter*` render opcodes and an example. GLSL over indirect GLX was never standardized, so ARB assembly is the ceiling — worth saying in the issue so it stops reading as open-ended. ### [#51](https://github.com/sidorares/node-x11/issues/51) — GL evaluator functions (2014) `Map1`/`Map2`/`EvalCoord`/`EvalMesh`/`MapGrid` still absent from `lib/ext/glxrender.js` — re-checked, zero hits. Niche legacy GL, well specified, low priority. --- # ntk — 17 open Three PRs merged today closed #126 and #117 and left #118 partly done. What remains splits cleanly into one real bug, a text/render batch, a clipboard batch, and a tail of old idea-issues. ## Worth doing next ### [ntk#116](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/116) — keysym by XKB group and shift level `symInd = capital ? 1 : 0` reaches only levels 1–2 of group 1, so on Linux a non-Latin layout never types — and a layout switch fires no MappingNotify, so the existing refresh cannot see it. The group bits are already arriving in `ev.buttons` 13–14; no XKB extension calls needed for the common case. AltGr (levels 3–4) is unreachable for the same reason, which the code's own TODO admits. **Highest user-facing impact of anything open in either repo.** Caveat for this machine: XQuartz takes the other path entirely — it rewrites the keymap and fires MappingNotify rather than using groups — so the payoff cannot be confirmed locally without a Linux box. ### [ntk#118](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/118) — remaining: `_NET_WM_ICON` Items 1, 3, 4 and 6 shipped in #131 (the WM_PROTOCOLS clobber, `setWmHints`, `setPid`, the position/size flags) and item 2 in #130 (the ClientMessage helper). Only item 5 is left, and it is a pixel-format decision rather than a property-writer one: EWMH wants non-premultiplied ARGB in CARD32s, ntk's `getImageData` hands back BGRA, canvas `ImageData` is RGBA. Pick a convention first, then it is twenty lines. ### [ntk#36](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/36) — a named close-request event Still real, and now small. `addProtocol('WM_DELETE_WINDOW')` opts in and the request arrives as a generic `'message'`; what is missing is the ergonomic half the issue actually asks for — a named event, and the issue's own suggestion of `onBeforeUnload` is worth keeping. Natural follow-on to #131. ## Batches **Text/render:** [#125](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/125) one-write-per-frame, [#124](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/124) maxLines/ellipsis, [#123](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/123) half-leading, [#122](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/122) downscale before upload. #124 and #123 are self-contained TextLayout work with obvious tests; #122 is perf, deferred. #125 has shrunk to a one-liner now that node-x11 buffers output: measured against the current client, `createClient({ bufferRequests: … })` alone takes a 2000-request ntk frame from 2003 writes to 1–2, because `_runFrame()` emits a frame in one synchronous run and ends with the frame fence's `GetInputFocus`, whose reply gate flushes exactly at the frame boundary. The `X.flush()` at `_present()` the issue proposes is therefore redundant, and it would pin one write per window-frame — where `flushOnReply: false` plus the end-of-tick flush lets several windows' frames in one tick coalesce into a single write. What is left for ntk: pass the option through and size `maxSize` to a frame (16 KB default = ~5 writes for a 72 KB frame, 256 KB = 1); `tcpNoDelay` already defaults to on with buffering. **Clipboard:** [#120](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/120) XFixes selection-changed events, [#119](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/119) INCR on the write side plus required targets. #119 closes a limitation `lib/clipboard.js` documents in its own header, so it is honest work with a known shape. **Fonts:** [#121](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/121) a first-class bundled-fonts option. The `FontSource` seam already exists — `StaticFontSource` is the browser-safe implementation — so this is largely packaging a default set rather than new architecture. ## Resolved or superseded — close these ### [ntk#106](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/106) — drop the mermaid dependency **Done**, by removal rather than injection: `feat!: drop mermaid diagram rendering` (#113, in 4.0.0). `grep mermaid package.json lib/` is empty. The issue asked for a `configureTex`-style injection seam and got deletion instead, so close with that note rather than silently. ### [ntk#31](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/31) — set window class / "all the EWMH stuff besides the title" **Done.** `setClass` has shipped for a while; as of #131/#132 the EWMH surface covers window type, states, transient-for, hints, protocols and pid. Close pointing at the Window manager hints section of `docs/window.md`. ### [ntk#19](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/19) — implement basic ICCCM **Done**, including the API sketched in your own comment on it — `createWindow({ icon, transientFor, maxWidth })` and `setHints()` both work as written there. Close pointing at #131. ### [ntk#4](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/4) — layout managers Superseded. The answer turned out to be yoga-layout, used by HtmlView and re-exported from `lib/index.js` so downstream renderers share one WASM instance. Cassowary is not coming. ### [ntk#17](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/17) — widgets via Zebra Superseded. Zebra is unmaintained, and ntk grew its own widget layer — HtmlView, MarkdownView, SvgView, TexView. ## Leave open, low priority - [ntk#37](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/37) — "attention" event, a 2018 speculative idea about predicting clicks. Unrelated to the ICCCM urgency hint despite the name; needs a decision on whether it is wanted at all before it is worth scoping. - [ntk#22](https://github.com/sidorares/ntk/issues/22) — text editor example. Genuinely useful as a demo of the text stack, and cheap once #124 lands.