Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!jonabbey From: jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu (Jonathan David Abbey) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life. Message-ID: <295@atacama.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 9 Apr 91 00:59:00 GMT References: <46867@ut-emx.uucp> <1991Apr8.222503.23643@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 39 In <1991Apr8.222503.23643@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes: | Michael, you keep saying Display Postscript isn't a problem, but in fact |it is. Interpreted languages are usually on the order of 4-10 times slower |than compiled languages. DP is reasonably complex, and given how large |postscript descriptions of complex screens can get, I'd say that your 15mips |DP interpreter would run at an effective 2-3 MIPS. (Probably slower than |SoftPC) If Jobs was smart, he would have put an extra 68030 in the NeXT |to offload the DP work. If an Amiga user adds an 040 card to the A3000, the |onboard 030 will become availible for offloading i/o, etc. This is beginning to become annoying. Display PostScript need not at all be slow. Yes, Display PostScript is interpreted, but that doesn't imply that it need be slow. PostScript is a very simple language, involving only hashed token look-up and stack pushing/popping. The actual rendering functions could very well be in optimized '030 assembler for all I know. Display PostScript may actually even provide for a binary equivalent to common PostScript tokens, which could overcome much of the size bloat of regular PostScript. The only times in which DP would be so terribly complex would be those times that the Amiga rendering functions would be rather inadequate for the task. The benefits include a much higher level of device independence and an easier time at software development time. (Would you rather write a desktop publishing program for the Amiga or NeXT? Which would take longer? Which would have greater potentials for errors?) |-- |/~\_______________________________________________________________________/~\ ||n| rjc@albert.ai.mit.edu Amiga, the computer for the creative mind. |n| ||~| .-. .-. |~| ||_|________________________________| |_| |________________________________|_| -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan David Abbey \"Take your place on the great Mandela" P,P&M the university of texas at austin \ jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu "Love me, love computer science/math?/psychology? \ (512) 472-2052 my Amiga" -Me