Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!tank!uwvax!puff!cat28!blochowi
From: blochowi@cat28.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: apple II enhancements
Summary: Why not?
Keywords: Quickdraw Coprocessor, Regions
Message-ID: <2248@puff.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 89 15:34:47 GMT
References: <890208220053.845007@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> <6477@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <25565@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@puff.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: blochowi@cat28.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 25


	Isn't a region just a list of components? (What else could it be???)
If so, then the coprocessor would have to have a set of operations to be
performed on the list of stuff... I'm not a hardware person, but remember,
this is the 80's (almost the 90's) - we can do anything, right? :) Btw,
since it is Apple's proprietary data structure, then only Apple can come out
with this thing, right?

	As far as a post-regions coprocessor. Are you really trying to tell me
that a hardware blit of a block of screen memory wouldn't be fast enough to
justify it? Hardware slower than the //gs in software??? Just some (relatively)
simple stuff - raw memory move (maybe not - that's what MVN & MVP are for,
right? But they're limited to CPU speed), "screen form" memory move (based on
a whateverYouCallIt - the data structure that defines a bitmap), a pattern
fill (even in just rectangular areas would help bunches...). The blitter in
the Atari ST (newer ones) does a bit more than that, but not tons, and it sped
the user interface up significantly - and this was already on an 8Mhz 68000!

	Ahh... What a thought: ScrollRect & PPToPort working at blistering
speeds!

	Jason Blochowiak (blochowi@wherever_i_am - garfield.cs.wisc.edu?)
			"Not your average iconoclast..."

Dave Whitney: Where are you? Write to me; either here or @lakesys will do.