[interfacekit] Re: Re: Re: app_server specs

>> Nope. If you look at prototype 4's source, you'll notice that there isn't 
>any 
>> drawing done by the test app. The only thing it does is make a bunch of 
>> messages and fire 'em off to the server.
>
>I guess I misphrased that.  My question is this:  What business does an
>app have doign making direct drawing calls to the server?
In the Real World(TM), the app itself doesn't make the drawing calls - BViews 
do. Being I don't have a working  BView module going yet, I hacked something 
together to test the graphics code. :)

>Is BWindow going to be doing the drawing of the window, or is
>app_server?  If it is, then that makes for a rather hefty BWindow looper,
>each time a new BWindow is created.  Instead, why not use a picassoesque,
>which knows the "draw window with bounds XYXY and with attributes
>MMMM" language, and does all the nitty gritty.  "picasso" then draws it on
>its own time, as called by the app_server internally.
I can't completely remember what picasso does, but I *do* remember that it 
does not handle drawing. If you look in the BeBook listings for BWindow and 
BView you'll find references to a server-side "shadow" of each BWindow and 
BView. These shadow windows are what receive drawing messages and process 
them. Considering the sheer number of drawing calls made, having one thread 
handle them would have serious performance problems

>Other widgets would do the same.
>
>This would allow a set of plugins for themes to be loaded by app_server
>itself (which means Binary compatible themes in R1!!).  This also seems
>like an incredibly facile way of managing the coding.
I was planning on doing something more like what Erik mentioned - window 
decors and customizable system colors, the former in an AtheOS-like fashion 
and the latter by means of something like set_ui_color(attribute, color). 
Widget-based theming is definitely something R2 and has had _very_ lengthy 
discussions on the GE list.

This theming discussion does remind me of one thing, though. What should we 
plan on doing concerning BScrollBars?

>I have a document which describes how I think app_server circa R5
>operates, should I publish it?  I'd also be willing to put time into
>developing most of the components I enumerate.
>
>Isaac
Please do - I'd like to see those docs. Chances are that you've got insights 
on stuff that I've missed.

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