[libksd-devel] Phase I of the graphics core rewrite

[David S. <xe...@ne...>]

I have just commited the first phase of the graphics core rewrite to the
libksd CVS repository.  This change set includes the most fundamental
changes I plan on making.  The next steps include fine tuning the rest of
the library (mostly the widget related code) to take advantage of the new
internals.  Like all "rewrites", this new code contains new bugs that we
will have to iron out in the future.  So if you have any work that depends
on the CVS version of libksd, I suggest hanging onto the last version for
the time being.

The new graphics core affords the following advantages:

 - Much cleaner TSurface heirarchy.  The code from 0.0.4 allowed for new
TSurfaceData classes (with an additional layer of abstraction), which is
an intriguing concept but the current libksd implementation is still
completely bound to an SDL based TSurfaceData.  In other words, you could
add new TSurfaceData types but they wouldn't work, so why add more
complexity.

 - Removed the overuse of functors and CPP macros in favor of proper
object oriented design.

 - It is now possible to do drawing WITHOUT TCanvas.  Previously, you were
either stuck with the slowness of TCanvas or the complexity of using the
KSD_DRAW macro.  Now all TSurfaces have a make_iterator() function which
will give you an ImageIterator that follows the dimensions, offset, and
scroll of the TSurface.

 - A clearly defined protocol for interfacing libksd with C or C++
libraries that were designed to work with SDL and have no concept of
libksd's structures.  Libksd has done this internally with a few
libraries but now it is possible to correctly do this (given that you
follow the protocol) using the external API.

Thank you.
  -- David Snopek

Satellite Computing Solutions, LLC