From: "netnews.hinet.net" <chris AT NOSPAM DOT beyoung DOT evercom DOT com DOT tw>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: The future of graphics programming
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 13:47:41 +0800
Organization: DCI HiNet
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Bjorn De Meyer wrote:
>I think we should try to make a gnu/freeware library (mabe we could call
>it X-Allegro (short for Xtreme Allegro)?) wich is so popular we can ask
>the card makers to create their own drivers for that library. For that we
>should
>a) make tons of freeware / cheap and very good applications for that
>library and add an extra info in the docs wich makes
>the user aware that he even can get better performance if he asks his
>hardware retailer to give him a driver for our library.
>b) Write drivers for most common cards.
>c) Send free instructions to all card makers on making a driver for our
>library and make these instructions publically available.
>
>Now we only need some volunteers for the task. ^_^
>


 I'm kinda thinking along the same lines, but I see a potential problem. I
think that it might actually be better to keep some/most of the
driver/interface code in the public domain. Of course, this would be a major
hassle, but I don't think that the card/chipset makers are interested in
supporting something like this (at least not until a company like id starts
to use it anyway ;).

   There are some tools available to start us off though. I am considering
how useful an Allegro extension which uses the Glide Rasterization library
would be. This is an idea I've been thinking about for a long time, but
haven't really investigated yet. I even downloaded the Win95/DOS version of
the library last week, but I think it'll be a big hassle, as it's designed
for MS VC 4.2 (for Win32) or Watcom 10.5 (for DOS). I am familiar with VC,
and I think I'll tackle those files first, as they should at least be
protected mode stuff.

   So this should keep me busy for a few weeks. I'll post here any results I
get. In the meantime if there are any other volunteers for this ill-fated
voyage, please speak up...

Chris Bilson
chris AT DIESPAMDIEevercom DOT com DOT tw
Beyoung Technology
8th Fl., No. 94 Pao-Chung Rd.
Hsintien, Taipei County
TAIWAN