--~\/~-- The Blind Dwarf --~\/~--
__ __
\ \ / /
\ \ /\ / /
\ V V /
\_/\_/hilst shopping for frogs teeth on the eleventh street in Echs,
one of our intreped travelers tripped over a poor beggar dwarf. The
creature was blind, but as the mage stopped to drop a few of the teeth
into his hat, the beggar said in a faint voice "Thank you sir. After so
many years, I almost have enough to pay the scholars to teach me to read."
Somewhat astonished, the mage countered: "Read, but you are obviously
blind my short friend! What good could literacy do the blind?"
The dwarf responded "Well, sir, though I lost my sight before the age
when dwarves are taught the arts of books, before then I served the
elders of our lair as an errand boy carrying parchments in the
catacombs. You are surely aware that us dwarves have very good
memories. I did not understand what was written on the pages I
carried yet four hundred and twenty years ago, but I assure you, I
remember every last inking in the finest detail." His voice trailed
off in a wheeze as he came to the end of his breath, and he took
in another almost as long as his banter.
"I have enough in here," he finally continued, nudging his forehead
with a pudgy finger, "to become a very wise man, if only I may attach
meaning to my memories."
--~\/~--
Now in CVS for your enjoyment... numerous improvements to
display-memory, some of which I needed for the new X target I'm
working on:
1) frames support
2) new -pixfmt option for nontrivial pixelformats (bgr, etc.)
3) new -layout option for planar and strided framebuffer layouts
4) new -noblank option prevents buffer from being fillscreened black
on setmode (for use with preallocated framebuffer.)
The last one I haven't verified working yet, and of course you can
never torture code enough these days. So have at it.
Scribe Eric: Bequest forgiveness on my behalf from your XML gods for
any sacrilage I hath committed.
--
Brian
