docs/README.DJ

   1                     Mesa 4.0.1 DOS/DJGPP Port version 0.1
   2                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4
   5
   6 First of all...
   7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   8
   9 This is a DOS port for MESA 4.0.1. I didn't bother to consider any DOS C
  10 compiler other than gcc, so this port was written using DJGPP v2. To be more
  11 precise:
  12         djdev 2.03
  13         gcc v3.0.3
  14         make v3.79
  15
  16 Almost all demos were compiled and ran succesfully on my system:
  17         CPU:            Intel Pentium w/ MMX @166 MHz
  18         Mainboard:      ViA Apollo VP2 w/ 128 MB SDRAM
  19         Video card:     Matrox Millenium I w/ 4096 kB WRAM, Matrox BIOS v3.0
  20
  21 Since I don't have access to any accelerated video hardware, this port is
  22 entirely based on VESA/SuperVGA. My little attempt to use FreeBE/AF ended in
  23 a failure, but that's another story: it seemed to work fine with my older
  24 Matrox Millenium w/ 2MB, and then I got another Matrox Millenium w/ 4MB. The
  25 problem with latter was it had a dead BIOS; I hot-flashed it and made it work
  26 in all environments (Windows 95, VESA, etc) but FreeBE/AF.
  27
  28
  29
  30 Legal:
  31 ~~~~~~
  32
  33 This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
  34 License.
  35
  36 Source code written by others is subject to its respective copyright.
  37
  38
  39
  40 libGL (the core):
  41 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  42
  43 Of course, MESA 4.0.1 core sources are required. It will probably work with
  44 MESA 3.5, but not a chance with earlier versions due to major changes to the
  45 MESA driver interface and the directory tree. All should compile succesfully.
  46
  47 The driver has its origins in ddsample.c, written by Brian Paul and found by
  48 me in MESA 3.4.2. I touched almost all the functions, changing the coding
  49 style ;-( Sorry!
  50
  51 Pitfalls:
  52 1. The current version supports only RGB[A] modes, for it made no sense to me
  53    to endorse color-index (aka palette) modes.
  54 2. Only double-buffered is allowed because it was simpler to implement at
  55    that moment. Single-buffered will appear soon, especially if I can find a
  56    way to use hardware acceleration.
  57 3. Another weird "feature" is that buffer width & height must be multiple of
  58    4 (I'm a lazy programmer and I found that the easiest way to keep buffer
  59    handling at peak performance ;-).
  60 4. The video mode selector is tricky: it searches for the smallest mode which
  61    will entirely contain the buffer at its current position. If you want a
  62    small buffer in a high-res mode, try to position it very far to the right
  63    (or down). I'd really use some ideas here!!!
  64
  65
  66
  67 libGLU:
  68 ~~~~~~~
  69
  70 Mesa GLU sources are required. Everything should run smooth.
  71
  72
  73
  74 libGLUT (the toolkit):
  75 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  76
  77 Well, this "skeletal" GLUT implementation is not mine. Thanks should go to
  78 Bernhard Tschirren, Mark Kilgard, Brian Paul and probably others (or probably
  79 not ;-). I only changed it to be self-standing (Allegro-free). The keyboard,
  80 mouse and timer drivers were inspired from an old project of mine (D3Xl) and
  81 fixed with some Allegro "infusions"; my deeply thanks to Shawn Hargreaves and
  82 co.
  83
  84 My keyboard driver used only scancodes, but since GLUT requires ASCII values
  85 for keys, I borrowed the translation tables (and maybe more) from Allegro.
  86 Ctrl-Alt-Del (plus Ctrl-Alt-End, for Windows users) will shut down the GLUT
  87 engine unconditionally: it will raise SIGINT, which in turn will call the
  88 destructors (let's hope), thus cleaning up your/my mess ;-)
  89
  90 The mouse driver is far from complete (lack of positioning, drawing, etc),
  91 but is enough to make almost all the demos work.
  92
  93 The timer is pretty versatile for it supports multiple timers with different
  94 frequencies. It may not be the most accurate timer in the known universe, but
  95 I think it's OK. Take this example: you have timer A with a very high rate,
  96 and then you have timer B with very low rate compared to A; now, A ticks OK,
  97 but timer B will probably loose precision!
  98
  99 As an addition, stdout and stderr are redirected and dumped upon exit. This
 100 means that printf can be safely called during graphics, but all messages come
 101 in bulk! A bit of a hack, I know, but I think it's better than to miss them
 102 at all.
 103
 104 Window creating defaults: 640x480x16 at (0,0), 8-bit stencil, 16-bit accum.
 105
 106
 107
 108 Installation:
 109 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 110
 111 Unzip into the MESA directory, and type "make -f Makefile.DJ" to compile all
 112 libraries. Long filename support is required during compilation. The examples
 113 are not built automagically (see Pitfalls above).
 114
 115
 116
 117 History:
 118 ~~~~~~~~
 119
 120 v0.1    feb-2002        initial release
 121 v0.2    ..soon..
 122
 123
 124
 125 Contact:
 126 ~~~~~~~~
 127
 128 Name:   Borca Daniel
 129 E-mail: dborca@yahoo.com
 130 WWW:    http://www.geocities.com/dborca/