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From: msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Use of select in NeWS.
Message-ID: <11756@sgi.SGI.COM>
Date: 26 Feb 88 20:08:49 GMT
References: <1376@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> <3189@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <7171@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: daemon@sgi.SGI.COM
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In article <7171@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, chapman@eris (Brent Chapman) writes:
> Well, Sun _does_ have two different versions of NeWS, according to the
> instructors from Sun at the NeWS tutorial at the Phoenix USENIX last
> summer.  There's the fast, tuned, Sun-only version that is what Sun
> distributes binaries from, then there is the slower, portable version
> that they will sell source for to other vendors.
> 
> --

The source licensee receives the source for both versions.  The
difference lies in the underlying pixrect graphics support and in the
OS interfaces.  The licensee is free to choose the most appropriate
version for his hardware.  The pixrect changes are mostly for
portability.  Ifdef's allow it to work on both LITTLEENDIAN and
BIGENDIAN machines.  The left hand casts are gone.  The SUN version
also relies on some tricks available with the Sun compiler/assembler
combo that allow assembler functions to be put in line wherever they
are called instead of making function calls.

The speed difference between the 2 versions is small.
--
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@sgi.sgi.com, ...{ames,decwrl,sun}!sgi!msc
"There is much virtue in a window.  It is to a human being as a frame is to
a painting, as a proscenium to a play.  It strongly defines its content."