> 
> Having enjoyed using Tcl/Tk and iWidgets, I question why I'm plowing 
> through the XForms toolkit.
> 
> http://xforms-toolkit.org/
> 

I like light-weiught widgets and this looks like one of those. I use Motif
(or Lesstif (more liberal license) for stuff like that, primarily because of
the SGI retro look of the widgets and the fact that I know how to use them
(object orientated design with a pure C API). The Open Group wanted about $5k
for the license for commercial purposes, and that is when Lesstif came about.
What would compile with -lXm is done with -lXt and so a really simple change
to legacy code. (that was a tangent)

What you did with Freepascal and /dev/fbN you can do with OpenGL over the GLX
layer in X11. I recommend it. OpenGL will not let you down.

> 
> The problem with X seems to be all the queues. It draws when it wants to 
> draw. I really don't know all the modern graphics cards stuff.
> 

Was there a latency issue for you? I say that over 24 fps speaks to almost no
latency for a user interfaces. Xlib has a better design than meets the eye.
There is extensive use of C unions so that structures (for events and other
objects that are handled) are handled polymorphically. The memory overhead
on the stack is something I _never_ had an issue with, but I also never
profiled it to see what it is.

If you need help with Xlib let me know and I will be happy to help. There sure
will not be a way back to anything lower level from now on unless there is
good reason for it, and that will be for special cases. You might as well
drink my Xlib coolaid. Tcl/Tk, Motif, etc, will work really well. Go with
the XForms and let us know of your experience.