Re: SDL vs GGI

[Pierre Phaneuf <pp@ludusdesign.com>]

Brett_A._Letner@NOTES.UP.COM wrote:

> (I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, I really want to know.  I've used X
> and Windows, but after awhile I found that I could be more efficient by
> keeping my hands on the keyboard and focusing on one task at a time.  I've
> found windowing systems to be not much more than a pretty distraction.
> Maybe Mac or Beos is better?)

Yes, I used to be like that. Back then, when Win95 wasn't out yet and
that I bought my first PC (a 486DX4/100), I couldn't stand Windows 3.11
more than a week, I switched to DESQview (anyone remember this?). When I
upgraded to Win95 (out of necessity, for my work), I remember staying in
the command line all the time (as much as COMMAND.COM sucks compared to
a real shell). Then I started using the Explorer with the keyboard
exclusively. I'd say that's the fastest you'll ever be able to go, with
the tree view in a small enough font (so you can see a lot at a time).
When I switched to 100% Linux, I did the same, went to the console and
used X only as necessary...

I don't remember how exactly, but over the time, I found X to be
friendlier and making my work more efficient. Many factors were
implicated, like going from a primitive window manager (fvwm2) to more
advanced environments (icewm, then Window Maker) and getting better
hardware (got a Pentium 225, 96 megs RAM, 17" monitor and fast Matrox
card).

One day I woke up and the X server had been running on my computer for
more than a week without switching to other consoles. Fairly painless.

> I've never programmed in SVGAlib, so I can't comment.  However, I can
> compare programming in Xlib and fbcon.  Let me tell you I found fbcon to be
> much more straightforward, intuitive, and easy.  My (unaccelerated) code
> also ran much, much, faster.

If you just do XPutImage of the full screen buffer, you're doomed. If
you use XShmPutImage, you're a better off, but not quite there either.

-- 
Pierre Phaneuf
Ludus Design, http://ludusdesign.com/
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi