DIAMOND JEFF wrote in message <38754@palm-dev-forum>...
>
...
>
>This IS an interesting idea. Of course, if Palm were to provide this
library (or at least officially approve this library) then it
>would be (by definition) legal, and free to developers. The only issue I
see is distribution - might every game would needlessly
>include a copy of this library, and possibly some library versions would be
out of date. The alternative is equally problematic -
>requiring the user to find and install the latest version of the library.
>
>But all this is avoided if Palm has a graphics manager API which gradually
increases its functionality to support whatever hardware
>is present.
<thinking out loud>
Let's take this idea and generalize it. How about a "meta shared library"
...
or a shared library module manager. Installed modules are not immediately
available to the user ... perhaps the type is set to indicate "unregistered"
when first installed. When a module needs to be loaded it is loaded through
the manager, which first checks any "unregistered" versions against the
current version, picks the most recent one, makes it the "registered"
version,
disposes of the loser, and then returns the handle of the now guaranteed
latest-and-greatest version of the library module to the requesting program.
This way a game distributed w/ an out-of-date graphics lib couldn't
accidentally
blow away the newer version you got w/ a more recent game.
</thinking out loud>
MathLib should be be the first library to become "version managed" ;-)
--
-Richard M. Hartman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!
--
For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
