Re: [AD] Big BeOS changes

["Angelo Mottola" <a.mottola@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I would just like to say that it looks like the BeOS port has come a very
> long way since I started it and I probably would not recognize it anymore.
> I'm glad that someone has been able to bring it to its current state
> because it got pushed over my "priority horizon" a long time ago.  I would
> like to thank everyone who has worked on it for their contributions.
> Thank you.

Heh, what to say... I also stopped developing for the BeOS port of Allegro a
while ago due to other interests popping out, but both the fact I received a
begging from some Be users to fix the lib (Shawn should have got an email
from Eugenia Loli too) and the fact we're now talking about Allegro 4.0
brought me to reinstall BeOS on my computer and start developing again for
it. Actually I must say I forgot how fun it was to work under this OS...
There are just some things missing, otherwise it would be perfect for my
desktop daily use. And BeAllegro is probably the fastest port of the lib!
Try it yourself if you don't believe this...

> I hope I didn't do anything too brain dead which had to be fixed at the
> cost of someones time.  I would like to think that the conventions and
> methods I used, and their consistent use throughout the driver code
> helped.  I apologize for the lack of comments ^_^

Believe me, you did a wonderful work! Some things like variable names were
not in line with Allegro standards and I had to fix this in my latest
update, and I sometimes miss some more comments, expecially at function
headers... But these are the only things, as you really did a nice job!

> I probably spent the most time on the keyboard code, which I wanted to act
> exactly like Be's normal keyboard input method for non-ascii characters.
> I don't think I ever got the code unicode aware, or even UTF-8 aware
> however.  I bet that either the keyboard code has been ripped out because
> someone felt it was totally wrong, or never touched again because it's too
> scary (there are a couple of small bugs in it).

The latter one ;-)

> I hope that graphics acceleration made it into the graphics driver.

Sure there is. You should try it! I get almost the same blit performances as
under Linux with my TNT2...

> I had fun while I used BeOS.  It was great to have a fresh start. It's too
> bad I have so many other things to do.  Keep up the good work ^_^

Thanks. Of course you're welcomed to try it out and come back whenever you
have some more free time! =)

--
Angelo Mottola
a.mottola@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.ecplusplus.com