Re: [MiNT] VDI? (was Re: an urgent GEM question :-)

["Johan Klockars" <johan@klockars.net>]

>> Which one is more advanced now? oVDI or fVDI? If fVDI is the most

Did oVDI ever progress beyond displaying things pixel by pixel (ie _very_ slow)?

fVDI is mostly as fast, or even faster, than NVDI, and supports most
VDI calls actually used by real programs (IIRC, I was working on some
of the new bitmap conversion functions used by certain graphics
programs, but most of that stuff is still not working).
Vector fonts (via the FreeType library) have been working fine for
years (not complete functionality, but enough for most programs out
there), and it can even do anti-aliased text rendering.
(The ARAnyM driver is the only one that supports anti-aliased text for
now, and I believe you would not really want to use it without at
least an '060 and probably hardware accelerated graphics.)

>> advanced and seeing that there are few developers left, wouldn't be a
>> better idea to make it the default free VDI for MiNT so less work must
>> to be done?
>
> I don't know anything about oVDI. As for fVDI we use it in ARAnyM's
> AFROS for 7 years without major problems and I think the fVDI is also
> included in CT60's modified TOS. It also has several hardware
> accelerated drivers available.

It's really simple to write device drivers for fVDI, and it can be
done in increments. That is, you can put together a really simple
driver in a couple of hours that will actually be usable. Then you can
add accelerated functions one by one to get more useful speed.

After a longish hiatus, the fVDI CVS is now up and running again, so
anyone is free to download the code and take a look. It was originally
designed to be compiled by TurboC and Lattice C (with associated
assemblers), but nowadays gcc works fine as well via some conversions
scripts/programs. An easy way to take a look is via the viewvc server
on my web page, www.klockars.net/viewvc.