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From: uad1077@dircon.uucp (Ian Kemmish)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Let's pretend
Keywords: Intel, 586, windows
Message-ID: <1990PMSat.22.14997@dircon.uucp>
Date: 23 Dec 90 02:51:14 GMT
References: <3042@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <450@lysator.liu.se> <1990Dec18.213506.645@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Organization: The Direct Connection, UK
Lines: 31

In article <1990Dec18.213506.645@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes:
>zap@lysator.liu.se (Zap Andersson) writes:
>>Once upon a time I built a graphics board for my computer. 240x240 pixels, 16 
>>shades of gray, not very heavy, BUT I had windows-like support in HARDWARE! 
>>Now I have
>> NEVER understood why this is not common practice in todays computers! I mean
>
>Total agreement!  There's no doubt that systems programmers in the
>not-too-distant future will look back on today as the dark ages
>of writing windowing software.  "What?? No windows in hardware?? Auugh!"
>

Hmmm, I've yet to see a windows-in-hardware chip that handles the input
semantics of windows or canvasses - you'd still need to handle the canvas
hierarchy in software, so having it in hardware as well just doubles
the amount of book-keeping you do.  Additionally, there is the problem
of what you do when you map the n+1'th window....  as I write this,
I can see about a hundred canvasses, a good few of them not rectangular.
Since I spend far more time drawing pictures than dragging windows,
and after all, clipping is ridiculously cheap compared to painting pixels,
I find if hard to shake the convicition that a windowing chip would
cost me more than it gained me.  If you're into graphics, the best thing
to invest in is a graphics pipeline and shaded triangle processor.  If
you're into 2D windows, the best thing would be a font scaler in hardware
(i.e. rendering direct from Type1 font descriptions to the screen).

-- 
Ian D. Kemmish                    Tel. +44 767 601 361
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