Re: Working on new backend

[Alexander Malmberg]

Chad Hardin wrote:
> 
> "Adam Fedor" wrote:
> 
> > Chad Hardin wrote:
> >> This is just an announcement to avoid possible (albeit unlikely) 
> >> duplication
> >> of work.

A couple of guys in #GNUstep and I have been discussing writing one for
some time, using the generic back-art-rds combination and a DirectFB
display server (among others). (Simplified, back-art would render stuff
to framebuffers, and rds would talk with a display server to display
things and get events.)

> >> I've started on a new backend for DirectFB, I hope to have something usable
> >> within 2 weeks.
> >>
> >> Also, what would be the preferred names for the splits of this backend?
> >> DirectFB and DirectFBlib?  (like win32 and winlib)
> >>
> >
> > I named the first after the windowing system (like x11) and the second
> > after the graphics model (like xlib or art). How are you doing the
> > graphics? Something like the art backend is pretty generic, although it
> > may need to be modified slightly to work with DirectFB.
> >
> 
> The current situation split I have planned is so:
> DirectFB: windowing system using directFB multi-app capabilities

The 'server' part.

> DirectFBlib: DirecFB based graphics and font rendering (very basic)

The 'graphics' part. I would advise you to implement a server part with
the XWindowBuffer interface and use back-art or back-gslib, though.

[snip]
> Has there been any discussion of creating a deeper hierarchy of directories
> for the backend?

No, because it makes no sense given the way things work. Different
graphics (NSGraphicsContext implementations, in practice) do not need to
be server-specific. The gsc/ code is used in xlib/, winlib/, and art/,
and art/ can use both the x11/ server and the rds/ server (which isn't
usable yet, and isn't in cvs). (If gslib/ uses XWindowBuffer like art/
does, it will probably be easy to change it to use eg. rds/, too.)

[snip]
> 
> This would prevent a confusing clutter if different windowing systems start
> using libart

The name back-art is misleading. (libart is used only for certain parts
of path rendering; most of the code, and most of the operators, don't
deal with libart at all.) But anway, the name stuck. Any graphics
implementation can use libart, it'll just need to pick another name :).

> Chad

- Alexander Malmberg