Re: [MiNT] GEM boost

[Evan Langlois <Evan@CoolRunningConcepts.com>]

On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 22:00 +0200, Henk Robbers wrote:
> I like GEM very much. Although it looks like a little
> tedious in its usage, once you have written 1 GEM program you
> mostly have dealt with the issues for further GEM programs.

Tedious?  By comparison to what?  GTK isn't any easier.

> The main advantage of GEM over other GUI systems is that
> it allows programs to be a single threaded multiserver.

Almost all GUI systems have a single event loop if this is what you
mean.

> In other words: a GEM program can handle any number of windows
> with a unlimited variety of content without the need for
> threads. A situation that greatly increases reliability,
> predictability and stability.

How is this different from other systems?

Except that GEM doesn't have a way to interface with file handles within
its event system.  This basically forces you to use threads, or use an
inefficient polling method.  So, you kinda got that backwards.

> A GUI must really be part of the OS. The part that is
> by far the most trustworthy part of any computer.

I'd rather have the disk IO system trustworthy, interrupts, memory
handling, etc.  Otherwise the GUI doesn't have a chance.  And who cares
if your GUI goes haywire if your disks get corrupted?

> XaAES will reach such a state of sophistication that
> people might want to create a version of LINUX that offers
> GEM as a alternative way of writing graphic applications
> on modern computers.

GEM doesn't offer the abstractions that modern programmers expect, and
the VDI is seriously lacking on features.  WCOWORK is a start, but I
don't think its enough.

> Be it only to get the full benefit of the amazing performence
> of the latter.

I gotta give it to you there.  Its takes a really fast machine to beat
an 060.  My 500Mhz PC running Gnome is a dog.  My 16Mhz STe may not have
been the fastest at crunching numbers and compiling and such, but when
it came to just getting stuff done ... I kinda miss it.  I could
actually USE the desktop.  On Linux, the desktop is slow and clunky and
I end up using the command line cause its faster.