Default Preconnection Convention

IM Servers are strongly encouraged to register their symbolic names as the ATOM names into the IM Server directory property, XIM_SERVERS, on the root window of the screen_number 0. This property can contain a list of ATOMs, and the each ATOM represents each possible IM Server. IM Server names are restricted to POSIX Portable Filename Character Set. To discover if the IM Server is active, see if there is an owner for the selection with that atom name. To learn the address of that IM Server, convert the selection target TRANSPORT, which will return a string form of the transport address(es). To learn the supported locales of that IM Server, convert the selection target LOCALES, which will return a set of names of the supported locales in the syntax X/Open defines.

The basic semantics to determine the IM Server if there are multiple ATOMs are found in XIM_SERVERS property, is first fit if the IM Server name is not given as a X modifier's category im.

The address information retrievable from the TRANSPORT target is a transport-specific name. The preregistered formats for transport-specific names are listed in Transport List. Additional transport-specific names may be registered with X Consortium.

For environments that lack X connections, or for IM Servers which do not use the X Window System, the preconnection convention with IM Server may be given outside the X Window system (e.g. using a Name Service).