Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!killer!elg From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (somewhat lengthy and hot stuff) Message-ID: <6401@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> Date: 12 Dec 88 06:35:19 GMT References: <1341@leah.Albany.Edu> Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas Lines: 38 in article <1341@leah.Albany.Edu>, jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek) says: > In article , mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) writes: >> The operating system is there for a reason. I won't use any piece of software >> that is so arrogant it thinks it owns the machine, and I'm sure most of the >> readers of this group feel the same way. Perhaps you should learn to program >> efficiently using the resources the operating system provides. > I have to disagree. Some programs simply couldn't be made without > by-passing the OS routines. I really doubt that anything in the Amiga OS > could draw the shapes in Starglider II fast enough. I know this is true > on the ST and have no reason to think its different on the Amy. Ah, but the Amiga OS has provisions for giving you your own private screen (on which you can scribble as you please, without going through the OS), and even provisions for using hardware devices such as the Blitter directly -- WITHOUT blowing all other running programs completely out of the water. I've looked at the source code to PixMate, which does blazingly fast image processing... what he does it grab the Blitter, send it making multiple passes over his AllocMem'ed screen doing logical operations, and presto. You can't get any closer to the hardware than that -- yet the program coexists with all other Amiga programs, and, in fact, actually has provisions for grabbing screens from co-running paint programs! And if your game absolutely MUST take complete control of the system, there was a paper the CATS folks released at a recent Devcon describing how to do it in a POLITE way, i.e. return the system back to Workbench etc. when you're finished. I've never seen StarGlider II (or much of any other Amiga games -- heck, I don't even have a color monitor!), but I seriously doubt that it would have been much worse if it was polite, although it might have required occasional overlays on 512K machines. -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 "We have treatments for disturbed persons, Nicholas. But, at least for the moment, we have no treatment for disturbing persons." -- Dr. Island