Re: [PATCH][FBDEV]: fb_putcs() and fb_setfont() methods

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, James Simmons wrote:

quoted

:-) I did not want prolong the discussion, but...

Geert is correct that the functions are generic. The fb_putcs() and
fb_setfont() can be compared to Tile blitting.  Tile blitting is a
common operation in some games such as Warcraft, Starcraft, and most
RPG's. I'm think there is Tile Blitting support in DirectFB.

In a tile-based game, the basic unit is a Tile which is just a bitmap
with a predefined width and height. The game has several tiles stored in
memory each with it's own unique id.  To draw the background/layer, a
TileMap is constructed which is basically another array.  Its format is
something like this -  TileMap[x] = y which means draw Tile y at screen
position x.

In the fbcon perspective, we can think of each character as a Tile, and
fontdata as the collection of tiles. fb_char.data is basically a
TileMap.  Of course, tile blitting in games is more complicated than
this, since games have multiple layers for the background, so layer
position, transparency, etc has to be considered.

So maybe if we can rename fb_putcs() to fb_tileblit(), fb_setfont() to
fb_loadtiles(), struct fb_chars to struct fb_tilemap and struct
fb_fontdata to struct fb_tiledata, maybe it will be more acceptable?

It can be even be expanded by including fb_tiledata.depth
fb_tiledata.cmap so we can support multi-colored tiled blitting.

This I have no problem with. I'm willing to accept this. As long as data 
from the console layer is not touched. As for loadtiles one thing I like 
to address is memory allocation. It probable is good idea to do things 
like place the tile data in buffers allocated by pci_alloc_consistent.
The other fear is it will only support so many tiles. 

I think it's best to let the driver allocate it. That way the driver can put it
where it's best suited. pci_alloc_consistent() is meant for PCI only.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds



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