To get past this, you have to learn that X11 is a protocol, not a library, and learn the protocol and then use the library to send protocol messages, instead of

To get past this, you have to learn that X11 is a protocol, not a library, and learn the protocol and then use the library to send protocol messages, instead of learning the library, which is how it's unfortunately taught and also how Xlib was unfortunately conceived of being used. Xlib was designed so you'd use it similarly to say Win32; that idea was a colossal failure. xcb is more closely aligned with the idea that it just helps you format network packets.