[UI] We haven't discussed Host windows yet

[tim Rowledge]

On 6-Sep-07, at 2:17 PM, Bill Schwab wrote:

> I submit that native==fast is a myth.
I think we'd find it was completely dependent upon the qualities of  
the implementations. Most emulated implementations will draw widgets  
in a manner something like
draw background to display
draw border(s) to diaplsy
draw foreground colour/pattern to display
draw little fiddly details to display
draw text of label to display
  - because it is an intelligable agorithm that can be tweaked.
I suspect many/all 'native' widgets are drawn more like
draw stored texture to in-graphics-card bitmap
draw text from stored bitmap to bitmap
copy to actual display memory

Assuming the situation is anything close to that it is easy to see  
how one way can be a lot slower than the other. If we further add in  
the use of hardware driven line and filling and shading then one  
could make a UI appear extremely quickly. I think that you might find  
that Croquet was making good use of the hardware in this manner and  
I'd imagine that one could do it for general Squeak. For portability  
I'd suggest that Cairo is a sensible option to consider; it seems  
promising in Sophie.


tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.