Each window under X can have any number of associated properties attached to it.
Properties are arbitrary chunks of data identified by atom s.
A property has an associated type, which is also identified using an atom. A property has an associated format , an integer describing how many bits are in each unit of data inside the property. When data is transfered between the server and client, if they are of different endianesses it will be byteswapped as necessary according to the format of the property. Note that on the client side, properties of format 32 will be stored with one unit per long , even if a long integer has more than 32 bits on the platform. The functions in this section are used to add, remove and change properties on windows, to convert atoms to and from strings and to manipulate some types of data commonly stored in X window properties.