From: Matthew Bloch <mattbee AT eh DOT org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Suggestion for Allegro...
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 11:02:40 +0100
Sender: mattbee AT soup-kitchen DOT demon DOT co DOT uk
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In message <3445339A DOT 7F98CE24 AT anest DOT azg DOT nl>
          Doug Eleveld <D DOT J DOT Eleveld AT anest DOT azg DOT nl> wrote:

> Normally I'd email this directly to Shawn, but I'm at home now (where I
> have mews but no mail) and also I'd like other peoples vews on this...

Telnet to port 25, be a man! :-)

> I know that the DAT files can carry code because you can put compiled
> sprites into the DAT files. Now, isn't it possible to also put some mode
> changing code or driver code into a dat file and have some small kernal
> always in memory that takes the requests, searches for the right DAT
> file and driver and load that into memory?  The memory footprint gets
> alot smaller and only the necessary stuff gets loaded.  

Well... the thing that has confused me about the DAT files is that you have
a separate call in the API for pulling out BMPs, WAVs etc., but they're all
essentially *data*.  Why can't you just have some extract_resource() call
which doesn't care about filetype?  Do poke me with sticks if I've missed the
point, but I think that'd be a good way of doing things.

-- 
Matthew              ( http://www.soup-kitchen.demon.co.uk/ )