From:	Damian Yerrick <Bullcr_pd_yerrick AT hotmail DOT comRemoveBullcr_p>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: Need advice on which graphics library to use
Organization:	Pin Eight Software http://pineight.8m.com/
Message-ID:	<cgisrs899k0qc0p4bef4aj4msudo8jriei@4ax.com>
References:	<39bde6b4 DOT 886926 AT news DOT soco DOT de>
X-Newsreader:	Forte Agent 1.7/32.534
MIME-Version:	1.0
Lines:	59
X-Trace:	+4vTA0N2RwrqI4mxHXjXKA1XziYdYTU4WW6+kQG7+/Qa8NkC4tH1GQlTk8ivG/cTxKaXJDXqptlI!LydpaRSVghlLuBnAbvlZm6+Zs8Y2sPFjEyIipu08rdq1PjCA9YQhKyY044np2lBJ0DFIZ4t00F0z!IvaGAes=
X-Complaints-To:	abuse AT gte DOT net
X-Abuse-Info:	Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info:	Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
NNTP-Posting-Date:	Tue, 12 Sep 2000 15:30:49 GMT
Distribution:	world
Date:	Tue, 12 Sep 2000 15:30:50 GMT
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

On Tue, 12 Sep 2000 08:47:40 GMT, stapffa AT bytec-gmbh DOT de (Alexander
Stapff) wrote:

>I want to use djgpp and either grx or allegro  to build the GUI
>software of a medical device.  This software will run on a Pentium

(Whew! You're not trying to run on 286!)
Good.  You're in the right newsgroup.

>166 PC with 32 MB of RAM und Rom-Dos (MS-DOS compatible) as
>Operating System. The graphics hardware is not yet defined.

If it supports VESA 2 or later, Allegro supports it.  Typical buggy
VESA 1.2 implementations, OTOH, cause instability for _all_ programs,
not just Allegro-based programs.

>This software should be able to display predefined images
>in a resolution of 320x240, 256 colours

320x240x8 is a tweaked VGA graphics mode in the Mode X family.
I'm not sure GRX even _supports_ Mode X.

>to draw boxes und lines (as indicators) and to display text within
>these images and to use the mouse (actually a touchscreen).

Allegro can do all this, provided your touchscreen driver is 100%
INT 33 compliant.

>My main concerns (in that order) are stability, performance

Allegro doesn't crash on me.  And it supports 2D acceleration
if you have the VBE/AF drivers for your chipset.

>but allegro seems more complex to use.

How is Allegro complex?

>2) Are there any problems, I could run into and should know of, with
>one of the libraries.

Compilation problems with GRX have not been patched into the main
distro; search the DJGPP mail archives for a patch.

Allegro 3.9.33 requires GCC 2.95.2 and Binutils 2.9.x (some asm syntax
changed between as 2.8 and 2.9).

>3) Which library would you recommend?

I haven't had any problems with Allegro that writing up a testcase
and sending it to the mailing list didn't fix within a couple days.
And even those were obscure bugs that you wouldn't run into in your
situation.

-- 
tiddly-day interj. (used to express agreement.)
  [American cellphone lingo]

This is McAfee VirusScan. Add these two lines to your signature to
prevent the spread of signature viruses.  http://www.mcafee.com/

- Raw text -