Re: [AD] Changes to aWiki

[Elias Pschernig <elias@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 01:19 +0530, Karthik Kumar wrote:
>         Could you give some examples how the vtablelist is used? It
>         isn't clear
>         to me..
> 
> 
> It's there below the declaration of AL_DISPLAY (we'll change the
> names, based on how we discussed them) 

Yeah, now I know that your AL_DISPLAY really is only the vtable, while
in Bob's API, it is a special type of AL_BITMAP. And about the lists, (I
know from #allegro now vaguely what they are, but I think we didn't come
to a conclusion if they are needed, or there could be a single vtable
entry with a format parameter instead - so) maybe you could add some
more details what they are good for and why they are needed (and assume
someone who only knows the 4.2 drivers, and was not in #allegro - else I
will stay the only one who could comment I guess).

Also, I think you should revert your changes to
al_create_display_bitmap, and just put you proposed alternative below
(or on a separate page). Right now, it's hard to see the original
version anymore, so hard to comment on yours.

And the main page now brings you to al_create_screen when you click
al_create_display_bitmap, which is just confusing. 

And it's a bit unfair, since your version wasn't discussed on this list
yet at all - but the original comes from (presumably) quite some
discussion on the A5 list back then, so doesn't deserve to just be
overwritten :)

Oh, and someone should pester Tomasu to fix the login.. I don't seem to
be able to login, else I'd have reverted it myself :/

> Also, what do you say for the idea of keeping common surfaces for
> different purposes? (like a stencil buffer, z-buffer, lightmap,
> heightmap, alpha channel and a regular bitmap) 

Bob's API doesn't specifically include most of those, and they wouldn't
be in the core API I guess - but surely it's what the extra AL_BITMAP
flags useable by addons could be used for. Basically, in Bob's  API, an
AL_BITMAP is just any surface, and the vtable pointer decides what to
do: Is it an actual AL_DISPLAY, or a mere memory bitmap, video bitmap,
texture, or whatever else.. so definitly could be extended to any other
surfaces that make sense.

-- 
Elias Pschernig