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From: bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Forbid/Permid and graphics
Message-ID: <8705131207.AA18615@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Date: Wed, 13-May-87 08:07:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: cogsci.8705131207.AA18615
Posted: Wed May 13 08:07:22 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 16-May-87 02:41:27 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 38

In article <who_cares> Dale Luck, the Software Wizard Extraordinaire typed:
>
> [When playing with the rp_Mask field you need to protect your self from]
> [intuition.  Here's how to do that best:]
>
> LockLayer()
>    do your stuff
>    muck with the mask etc,
>    draw with the new mask,
>    restore the mask
> UnlockLayer()
>

Well it is FAR, FAR too late for this, but a question/comment/flame it
in order:

One of the best ways to speed up text is to cut down on the ammount of
work.  This is even more critical in deep screens where *ANY*
write to CHIP memory is expensive. *!*

For a monochrome font in known conditions writing to one bitplane is
a good solution, until the user starts using the depth gadgets.

The reson the code above is disturbing is the SAME reson you came out
against Forbid() Permit(), to keeps layers locked for any length of
time disrupts the rest of the system.

I as of yet do not see a reason that Intuition would not copy all bitplanes
even if the mask is funny.  How to do this is another matter? -> a copy
of the rp_ is slow, a separate reserved "real" mask field is clumsy, a
standard, generic, rp_ for each screen...

    -Bryce-

*!*  That's CHIP ram or A500 and (worse yet) A2000 HYBRID memory. *sigh*

PS.  This would have gone to Dale Luck directly, but alas this sadistic
mailer refuses to find "dale@amiga.UUCP"