On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Daniel Morais wrote: > Hi Aaron ! hey daniel :)
> On Tuesday 09 April 2002 19:48, Aaron Ardiri wrote: > > maybe we are not supposed to allocate two 320x320 16bpp windows? :P > > Yes, maybe... and maybe Palm OS 5 should not be presented as an OS > allowing to use high density screens ! palm doesn't care about gaming/multimedia :) they market high density ability more for doing spread sheets or database applications.. palm != multimedia focused company :) > > there are other ways to do this if there is no memory - but, the > > simulator doesn't like me calling those API's *g* > > You mean by using FtrPtrNew, for exemple ? :) > If I remind correctly, we can read almost normally using this technique but > only DmWrite can be used for write access, right ? there are ways around DmWrite :) > That's not the way I want to use a screen! :) why do you need two buffers? :) one for offscreen, the other.. is the screen? if you can allocate one, that should be more than sufficient - dont you think? :) > > i dont know if palm or the licensee's will provide sufficient memory > > for double buffering like this.. > > On Clie devices ( which are "only" Palm OS 4, not 5 ), there is no those > problems : I was even able to allocate at least 3 offscreen windows in > 320x320 16 bpp ! yes, clie is a multimedia based device.. also, note, this "extra ram" is not available for users.. your 8Mb is something like 7.3Mb due to the fact that > 500K has been reserved for the dynamic heap. > And by cumulating several calls to MemPtrNew, there was more than 256 Kb > available, even more than 500 Kb ! yep :) knew that > So, if Sony have implemented a correct WinCreateOffScreenWindow function and > also give more memory available ( which is related ), why can't Palm ? > Aren't they the ones that write the software ? sony didn't do anything different, they just gave more heap space. > > have you tried using the WinScreenLock API's? these will take advantage > > of any VRAM if any (i dont know if the simulator emulates this).. > > Well, having a WinScreenLock kind of function properly designed would be > nice, but with the one actually available you can't do anything : you can't > get a WinHandle, disabling the use of all WinXXXX functions, and you are not > allowed to use (read/write access) the address it return ! > > So, I'm wondering what is the purpose of this function ? > Why does it exist in the API ad how are we supposed to use it ? dont ask me :) i dont use them *g* > (fortunately, all developers are not so respectfull with "rules" :) > > Beeing able to take advantage of the hardware to "really" flip the screens is > a very nice feature and I don't understand why this kind of things is not yet > really available to developpers... > Same for having access to a very important information vsync ! > > How can an OS claim to be "multimedia" if it does not offer at least what was > available 20 years ago ? :) talk to palm marketing :P > > once again, this would be a great time for palm to implement the display > > controller features i have been nagging about for a while :) > > I do not always agree on everything you say (and I'm not supposed to), but > on this topic, I'm 100% with you! :) > We can do much more than what is already done with those wonderfull devices, > just allow us to do it ! > It's not so easy, today, to write software that are not only good in term of > performances but also stay compliant with Palm OS, as most often the two are > contradictory... well, you can.. compatability mode(s) :P -- legal stuff = slow and crappy illegal stuff = awesome :P -- as long as you can guarentee your on the right device - you should have no problems with taking advantage, but, palm lacks various points of detection :) > Sometimes, like today, I'm like you, yelling against Palm OS engineers to > make them realize that they have to allow us to do "nasty things", or at > least write the functions we need in the API (not a lot are really needed). > > But in fact, I don't think they can really do something for us : I'm almost > sure that they also share our opinions, but they can't recognize it > officially as someone ( WHO ???? ) decided that it's not the way to go... a) dont have money to "explore" the area b) they dont care :) games wont drive the purchase value of the units up (well, in their "i am a boring bastard who sits at my desk all day" eyes of their marketing people - who believe games are for kids :) // az "decides its time to finish the rant and go to bed" [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ardiri.com/ -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
