Hello all.
We are making graphics support of coLinux. (coLinux is an emulator to run Linux as a Win32 app). there are many ways - 1. coLinux FB 2. DirectFB/SDL 3. VNC 4. Cygwin/X 5. Mingw X Each way has each charactaristics and pros and cons. then, I need your opinion. probably you advocate Cygwin/X very much. but it is ok. any information is welcome. anything is better than nothing. of course, fair comparison is better. Okajima, Jun. Digital Infra, Inc. Tokyo, Japan. http://www.digitalinfra.co.jp/ http://www.colinux.org/ -------------------------- Detailed description: coLinux FB: same as Linux frame buffer but uses DirectX. coLinux kernel allocates some pages on its "Pseudo Physical RAM" and DirectX recognizes it as a frame buffer. then with DirectX hardware accelerated bitblt func, the frame buffer is copied to a video RAM. FYI, for windows, coLinux is recognized as a "big and funny AGP texture RAM". good: generic. can be used many purpose without porting apps. problem: - can utilize H/W acceleration well? for example, can we use bitblt func to display scalable font cached on unusde area of video RAM? - Japananese support. this way needs to use Linux Japanese func, not Win32 one. but Linux is really poor in supporting Japanese. DirectFB/SDL: Making direct path between DirectFB/SDL and DirectX FB. and by using bitblt of Directx, it displays graphics. good: I dont know. Probably coLinux FB is better. I think this is an alternative which we fail to run coLinux FB. VNC: Using VNC server on coLinux side and you install VNC viewer on Windows. then you make a virtual tcp connection between them. good: you can connect from other machines. even on the mobile. bad: can use only for X. maybe big overhead and little bit slower. Note: actually, as far as we tested, it is not slower. rather faster than Cygwin/X in some cases. why? Cygwin/X: you dont need any description here ;). good: orthodox. multiwindow(overlapped) mode. accommodate with Win32 API. - GDI for H/W acceleration. - Windows Japanese support, ex. TT renderer, TT font itself, etc. - better printing than just hitting "print screen" key. bad: slower, buggy, huge, cygwin1.dll version dependency. As far as I know, it has no "reconnection" feature, which I mean when cygwin/X crashes, I can not get the session back even I restart Cygwin/X. Potentially it can use most part of Win32 Japanese support, currently only little stuff is implemented. lacks installer/admin utils. Mingw/X: good: no dependency of version number of cygwin1.dll. bad: under construction. I dont know even detailed feature. it does not run on my PC currently. helps!