Re: My First Computer (was Computing Editorial)

["Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch" <bj_666@gmx.net>]

In <3e45c1fe$0$9168$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, Ross Simpson wrote:

> I am looking at the calendar & all I see is sloppy inefficent programming
> which is supposed to be better through the use of faster computers. WHAT A
> WASTE!
> 
> Those hardware interrupts were put there for a reason, to be used! If the
> hardware manufacturers think they can get rid of them & still produce a
> IBM compatable there wrong.

Yes, to be used by drivers residing in operating system space. Not to
be used by user space programs directly. That's exaclty why Windows below
NT, 2000 and XP are so damned unstable. Every app was allowed to mess
directly with the hardware.

> As for DirectX, all I can say is it's shocking. Why waste using a Pentium
> 4 on sloppy stuff, when it could have some good programming through the
> use of the hardware?

Because any decent OS doesn't let you access the hardware directly. This
"wasting" of CPU horsepower makes computers running more stable and makes
the programs more compatible with different hardware. If you think DirectX
is too M$ + IBM clone specific then replace it with OpenGL or the already
mentioned SDL.

> DOS games are far superior on my machine & for that matter any machine
> than it's Windoze equivalent because DirectX is just more unneccessary
> overhead of functions which are already available.

Ralph Browns interrupt guide provides you with info about functions to let
a gfx card speed up 3D rendering? Any gfx card with 3D acceleration? And
all can be utilized the same way?

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch