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From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXT Press Release
Message-ID: <11226@uwm.edu>
Date: 21 Apr 91 00:03:36 GMT
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From article <.-2G2vju1@cs.psu.edu>, by melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger):
> 
> WRONG.  Motorola claimed that a 25MHz 68040 would do 20mips, but 15 mips
> is closer to reality.
> 

As I said, an extra 68000's power for my raytracing, being eaten up by
a task which isn't good for most programs.

> 
> I imagine if you want to hack with the NeXT, you can circumvent DP by
> writing directly to the frame buffer.

Sounds good.  Now how's about making the windowing system support
this???  Make a little switch in the system so that you can use one
set of routines or the other????  Make it standard???

> 
> Why exactly is Display Postscript slow?  I've heard quite a few Amiga
> droid say that it is, but do any of them have an answer to my
> question, or did another Amiga droid tell you that it is slow?
> 

1)  Walk through the code, and you'll understand.

2)  How large is it?  Something that large takes up processor time,
like it or not.  It simply does.  PostScript itself is rather clunky
and Display Postscript is better--but not by much.

3)  If it truly does take up 10% of a 68040, as you said, it _IS_.
May not be that much to someone who has never had to squeeze every
inch of a productive session out of a computer.  But for those who
have used Suns, Apollos, or ANYTHING except a NeXT know that a slow
GUI is BAD for productivity.  And the solution, as you would like to
think, is NOT to throw in a bigger cpu.

I believe someone said that you should code for the smallest, fastest,
most optimized programs, no matter what you plan on running it on.

The Unix kernal in general is big and obtrusive.  NeXT's kernal is
larger than most, if not all, I believe.  That fact in itself makes me
a tad wary.

Greg

-- 
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All opinions are my own, and not those of my employer.
Why?  He doesn't know I'm doing this.
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