Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 18:32:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: Brett McCoy <brtmac@ksu.ksu.edu>
To: Ben Black <benb@velocity.com>
Cc: vsta@cisco.com
Subject: Re: bitblt
In-Reply-To: <9509281434.AA25281@velocity.com>
Message-Id: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950930182634.1991C-100000@mort.ksu.ksu.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 28 Sep 1995, Ben Black wrote:

> my point was not that DPS is the fastest possible way to handle graphics, but  
> rather that it was fast enough, and that the programming and printing (and  
> whatever else) benefits more than compensated.  if performance were the only  
> goal, vsta would be written entirely in assembly optimized for andy's 386.   
> usability is important too, and that is where DPS totally crushes X.  do a  
> little DPS programming and a little X programming and see for yourself.

I would have followed this up to vsta-win, but I just sent mail off to 
subscribe to that list so I'm not on it yet.

One thing that seems to be false-logic to me is that all windowing 
operations have to run at warp 9 speeds.  For many things, functionality 
far exceeds the need for speed, which is what makes DPS a win over X in 
my book.  However, some things do need *speed*, such as realtime 
animation.  For these applications a system which allows more direct 
access to the video hardware should work well, such as Sun's DGA and 
OS/2's new games programming API (can't remember the name off hand).  The 
right tool for the right job should be considered.  You don't need 
blinding speed when drawing buttons (although fast is nice), what you 
need is a good, easy to use interface.

One additional item, has any thought been put into making something like 
Java be the base windowing system model?  It's a better programming 
interface than PostScript but seems to retain much of the functionality.  
In addition, it's threaded and object oriented.

Brett McCoy, UNIX Systems Administrator
Computing and Network Services, Kansas State University,  Manhattan KS  66506
vox: (913) 532-4908 / fax: (913) 532-5914 / e-mail: brtmac@ksu.ksu.edu
PGP Key available on request