Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!nosc!humu!pegasus!richard
From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Graphic characters in Norton Utilities SYS-V
Keywords: Norton Utilities, graphic characters
Message-ID: <1990Jul30.181330.3855@pegasus.com>
Date: 30 Jul 90 18:13:30 GMT
References: <1990Jul26.011852.1180@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> <1990Jul27.104059.12955@pegasus.com> <1990Jul27.165315.13531@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu
Lines: 19

>>Maybe I missed something here, what in the world does a Norton Utilities
>>clone have to gain from direct video?
>
>When we're repainting large amounts of the screen, as when scrolling
>something, direct writes are a whole lot faster.  If you hold down an
>arrow key to make it scroll, terminfo/curses has trouble keeping up
>but direct writes have no problem.  There's also complete terminfo/curses
>support for people not using a console.

I certainly hope other developers don't follow suite.  This sort of
gratuitous, DOS-style, system dependency is what the "open-systems"
movement has been seeking to avoid.  What Unix seeks to avoid.

There is too little to gain and too much to lose.



-- 
Richard Foulk		richard@pegasus.com