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Graphics systems/subsystems used by Visopsys

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:06 pm
by ronaldlees
I know Visopsys uses its own graphics code. But, if it were necessary to compare its similarities with other graphics systems, which of those systems would be most similar? Perhaps it's really not a "system" per se, but just fairly dedicated code? I haven't really looked much at that part of the source.

This all has to do with some irrelevant pipe dream about kgi/ggi that I have, because I'm not an X fan.

Re: Graphics systems/subsystems used by Visopsys

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:16 pm
by andymc
There's a generic graphic layer with basic, standard functions for drawing things (lines, ovals, text, etc). The only implemented graphics driver, which is a layer below the generic interface, uses the linear framebuffer. I'm sure you know what that is, but for the uninitiated, it's an area of main memory, mapped to the graphics memory, and you just treat it like a big array of pixels.

Re: Graphics systems/subsystems used by Visopsys

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:24 pm
by ronaldlees
Andy:

Thanks! I figured it was something straight forward. I've been digging around for an alternative to X on my other machines. The kgi/ggi (kernel graphics interface) project looked good, but is defunct and I can't seem to locate any code. It's so sad when these really innovative open source projects go down, almost without a trace. Don't let it happen to Visopsys!

Edit: I guess don't need to worry about a project that's been running for almost twenty years. Probably gonna hang around :-)

Re: Graphics systems/subsystems used by Visopsys

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:40 pm
by andymc
Yeah, I'm not sure what I would do with myself, if I wasn't doing this. I need somewhere to channel my energies. Visopsys actually dovetails pretty nicely with the professional work I do nowadays, as well.

Once nice thing about having your own hobbyist OS is that, for the vast majority of programming projects I might want to try, I can use the OS as the platform. An OS can include just about anything, nowadays.