Re: [MiNT] usage of wind_calc()

[Henk Robbers <h.robbers@chello.nl>]

Martin Tarenskeen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm not at all an expert in (Xa)AES system calls, like the guys posting 
> messages in this thread. Most of the technical stuff in this discussion 
> I don't understand.
>
> But I want to add my opinion from a user's point of view.
> My first experience with a multitasking AES for MiNT was the one that 
> was distributed with Atari MultiTOS when I bought my Falcon030. This 
> MiNT/AES was so buggy and unstable that I removed it from my harddisk 
> very soon.
>
> Some time after that I bought and installed N.AES. This was a big 
> improvement. Much more stable, and really usable.
>
> XaAES started to become a serious and free alternative for N.AES thanks 
> to the work of Henk Robbers. He removed a lot of bugs and added features 
> that made XaAES usable with cleanly programmed older as well as new Gem 
> apps, and even with many older apps that were NOT programmed very cleanly.
>
> Then XaAES was ported to gcc and moved to the SpareMiNT CVS where it was 
> picked up by some of the guys discussing in this thread.
>
> The current situation is that XaAES has improved greatly in terms of 
> stability, speed, and features. In that order.
>
> What's the point I want to make? I really like the way XaAES is the way 
> it is. I want an XaAES that is light, stable, and fast. If you want to 
> add new features - like theme support and even the possibility to change 
> themes on the fly - go ahead. I don't want to spoil your fun. But please 
> please be careful. Don't introduce (too many) new bugs, keep things 
> compatible with older apps that work fine now, and don't create an 
> oversized XaAES that will use too much processor time and memory on 
> original Atari machines. (Same story for the FreeMiNT kernel, but that 
> is not what this thread is about).

Very nice and wise words.

It is my recommendation to #if anything that goes beyond N.AES
functionality.

XaAES will come in 2 flavours:
1: N.AES compatible. A version that will not grow further. (XaAES)
2: A version that may grow and become as powerfull as the developers
   are willing to make it. (X.AES)

No developers fun will be spoiled.
People with older hardware can keep using a very good, fast and fully
maintained AES

Needless to say that the 2 flavours are produced from the same
source tree. Both fully subject to bugfixing and improvements.

--
Groeten; Regards.
Henk Robbers.    mailto:h.robbers@chello.nl
                   http://members.ams.chello.nl/h.robbers/Home.html
Interactive disassembler:     TT-Digger;  http://digger.atari.org
A Home Cooked teXt editor:    AHCX