Color recovery does rely on software support which is provided by libraries such as PHIGS, PEXLib, Starbase and even Xlib although Xlib does not enable it by default.
The program has existed in several incarnations: text-based curses for SunOS, text-based hardcoded VT52 for Atari TOS, GEM-based for Atari, Turbo C for DOS, Xlib-based for Linux and now Xt-based for POSIX-compliant systems.
Xlib |
X applications using Xlib directly are built around the XNextEvent family of functions; XNextEvent blocks until an event appears on the event queue, whereupon the application processes it appropriately.