Re: [AD] Proposed changes for Allegro 5 (6?)

[Bob <ohannessian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Shawn Hargreaves wrote:

> Bob writes:
>  >>>  - `bmp_read8()' & co currently use longs instead of pointers.
>  >>
>  >> The thinking behind using longs is that this makes the pointers
>  >> opaque, ie. can't be dereferenced directly by the user
>  >
>  > Those functions are of the fairly advanced level, so I don't
>  > see users who haven't understood pointers use them :)
>
> The problem is not so much programmer ignorance, as portability.


[snip - explication]

Ah, I see now what you meant.

I like the 'typedef void* bitmap_ptr' idea though, and it seems to 'fix' 
what was wrong with having a regular point. If this ok with you?

Of course, users can still cast back to chart/short/int, just like they can 
cast the int to a pointer and read/write from there.

Examples of how to make proper use of the functions should be in the 
documentation, instead of the example programs :)


--
- Robert J Ohannessian
"Microsoft code is probably O(n^20)" (my CS prof)
http://pages.infinit.net/voidstar/