Message-Id: <m0yCJUe-000S2vC@inti.gov.ar>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <salvador AT natacha DOT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
From: "Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET)" <salvador AT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
Organization: INTI
To: Bjorn De Meyer <bgdmeyer AT eduserv2 DOT rug DOT ac DOT be>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 10:32:03 +0000
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Subject: Re: The future of graphics programming
In-reply-to: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980309172407.15556A-100000@eduserv2.rug.ac.be>
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Bjorn De Meyer <bgdmeyer AT eduserv2 DOT rug DOT ac DOT be> wrote:

> On Mon, 9 Mar 1998, Chris Bilson wrote:
> [snip a lot]
> > 
> > The problem has always been hardware support. How do I take advantage of the
> > newest Voodoo III card from Allegro? Sure it's possible, and it wouldn't
> > even be all that difficult (if I was getting paid), but then what about
> > Li-Tech cards, Asus cards, SiS cards??? Am I goinf to get stuck writing
> > cards specific interface code the rest of my life? Do we move to OpenGL (I
> > can probably get away with using that from DOS), write a public domain
> > library that everybody can use (and answer e-mail requests to update it or
> > fix it for the rest of our lives), or do we just give up and use DirectX?
> > 
> > If anybody is still listening and has something to add...
> >
> 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 think the best way is to get finally working the newer VESA standards with 
support for protected mode and adding some aceleration stuff. 
In this way the manufacturer just needs to follow an standard and it can be 
used by any OS.
Linux is in big problems if the industry and/or the developers can't exploit 
the acelerators.

SET
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