Re: SDL vs GGI

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Brett_A._Letner@NOTES.UP.COM wrote:

> What is important is that in my estimation X does not offer my anything.

I'm sorry - I give up.  If you can't see the advantage of
a multiwindowed display then you are so far back in the dark
ages that we are simply not speaking the same language.

I give up.  I have an ASR-33 teletype somewhere in my attic
you might find attractive!

> If you have some examples of how X will help me perform
> day to day tasks more efficiently, then please share them.

OK, I'll give you 3 more minutes of my time...

Well, let's see, on my desktop right now there is:

* The window I'm typing this email to you with...it's
  running 'pine'
* Another window that has a list of all the other emails
  I got from you today (it's a LONG list).
* Four Xterms - showing: two editing sessions (not itty-bitty
  10 line slices of the screen - full 80 column, 60 row windows),
  a 'man' of the fast itimer functions, and a gdb debugging run.
* An icon that lights up when I get new mail.
* A button I can push to mute the audio to my headphones
  when someone comes into my 'cube' to talk to me.
* Netscape - which happens to be running on a machine in
  another building - pushing the graphics across to this
  screen...don't ask why...it's embarassing.
* A relaxing picture of an ocean that happens to be being
  generated by the program I'm editing and debugging.

I can glance from one editing window to another using ALT-F3
to push to the back anything that's getting in the way.

I can vary the size of the fonts - so that the window I'm
editing in has more eye relief - but the 'man' page that I'm
consulting is a little smaller so as to consume less valuable
screen space.

When 'gdb' produces a stack back-trace (which it's been doing
a lot today :-(  I can surf around my source code and see the
function that is dying in one window - the function that caused
it to die - the man page for the OS call that I screwed up...it's
all right there without me having to touch any keys.

I'm a graphics programmer - so I use GIMP, XV, AC3D and other
programs that only run under X.

Don't confuse a world of annoying point-and-click icons and
menus and stuff with what X can do for you.

Most of the time, I have four or five dumb terminals (Xterms)
popped up and I hardly touch the mouse at all.  You probably
do the same thing - except you can only see one of your
terminals at a time.  If I couldn't have X, I'd be 90% as
happy if I could just have four text windows running tcsh
visible at once. Being able to see them all at once instead
of flipping between them is the MAIN reason I use X.

I still use 'vi' and 'emacs' - I still do email with 'pine'
and I still use 'make' instead of fancy IDE tools. I admit
I don't use Lynx - Netscape really is more appealing - but
I design my web pages using 'vi' and not some cute point-and-
click page designer.

So, if that's not worth $0.10 of disk space, $3 of RAM and
0.05% of your CPU time, so be it. Just don't expect me to
write programs especially for your weird tastes!

> 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.

I don't program using Xlib. It *is* horrible.  I use something
like lesstif, tcl/tk or fl...or if I'm using OpenGL, I'll use
GLUT, or my own libraries.

-- 

Steve Baker                (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
Raytheon Systems Inc.      (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: sjbaker@hti.com      http://www.hti.com
Home: sjbaker1@airmail.net http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1