Editing X Window System (section)

===User interface issues===
The lack of design guidelines in X has resulted in several vastly different interfaces, and in applications that have not always worked well together. The [[Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual]] (ICCCM), a specification for client interoperability, has a reputation for being difficult to implement correctly. Further standards efforts such as [[Motif (software)|Motif]] and [[Common Desktop Environment|CDE]] did not alleviate problems. This has frustrated users and programmers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bumgarner |first=Bill |date=Nov 15, 1996 |title=Re: X is painful |url=https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/1996/11/msg00637.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231141002/https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/1996/11/msg00637.html |archive-date=Dec 31, 2022 |website=Debian Mailing Lists}}</ref> Graphics programmers now generally address consistency of application [[look and feel]] and communication by coding to a specific desktop environment or to a specific widget toolkit, which also avoids having to deal directly with the ICCCM.

X also lacks native support for user-defined stored procedures on the X server, in the manner of [[NeWS]]{{snd}}there is no [[Turing-complete]] scripting facility. Various desktop environments may thus offer their own (usually mutually incompatible) facilities.