X

Posted Apr 11, 2008 0:26 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
Parent article: OpenSSH bug falls through the cracks

allowing a local attacker to hijack X Windows programs

There's no "X Windows." It's "The X Window System." Abbreviated "X."

to post comments

X

Posted Apr 11, 2008 18:59 UTC (Fri) by bronson (guest, #4806) [Link] (3 responses)

"allowing a local attacker to hijack X programs"

Doesn't work.

"allowing a local attacker to hijack The X Window System programs"

Doesn't work either.

X

Posted Apr 11, 2008 23:16 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link] (2 responses)

"allowing a local attacker to hijack X programs"
Doesn't work.

It works for me. What's the problem?

"allowing a local attacker to hijack The X Window System programs"
Doesn't work either.

You have to drop the "The" to make it fit the sentence, but otherwise it works fine.

X

Posted Apr 15, 2008 6:20 UTC (Tue) by bronson (guest, #4806) [Link]

"hijack ten programs?"  "hijack X programs, where X is an integer from 4 to 30 inclusive?"
Calling something just plain "X" is usually too ambiguous.

The phrase "X Window System programs" is just tedious.  It's like saying "Do you have Band Aid
Brand adhesive strips?"  Nobody uses that sort of language unless they're forced to.

What is your motivation?  Are you trying to get people to change how they refer to the
Windowing System Known as X?

X

Posted Apr 16, 2008 14:03 UTC (Wed) by daenzer (subscriber, #7050) [Link]

"allowing a local attacker to hijack X11 programs"

How about that? :)

X

Posted Apr 14, 2008 23:15 UTC (Mon) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link] (1 responses)

I fear you're fighting a losing battle here—something along the lines of Band-Aid™, Kleenex™, and Xerox™. ``X Windows'' just falls ``trippingly from the tongue''.

X

Posted Apr 15, 2008 3:22 UTC (Tue) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

I fear you're fighting a losing battle here

That's because you imagine a different battle from the one I'm really fighting. I'm not trying to get everyone to call X by its right name.

My primary goal in pointing out misnomers like this is to correct the record -- I don't want the archive to stand forever as an uncontradicted example of the correct appelation of this window system.

My secondary goal is to inform readers of these comments who would like to call X by its right name and don't know it, a favor I'm thankful someone did me many years ago. There's a good chance there are some people like that listening.