RE: Lout gui

[mzukowski]

The NeXT windowing system was based on Display PostScript, and it is a well
thought out and fast rendering technology.  Currently GhostScript is being
extended to include the "Display" extensions for the GNUStep project
http://www.gnustep.org.  Display PostScript is very mature technology and I
have no doubts it could be easily used for a great interactive editor.  As
for the speed of Lout, I haven't done any profiling so I can't answer to
that.

Monty

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Kellett [SMTP:address@hidden
> Sent: Monday, May 17, 1999 10:50 AM
> To:   Lout
> Subject:      RE: Lout gui
> 
> > I've got some ideas about how to make Lout interactive, even on page 99
> of a
> > document, by using tools which make memory transactional so you can save
> and
> > restore checkpointed memory images.  Have you considered using Display
> > PostScript (or Display GhostScript) for display issues?  This would be a
> > perfect fit for Lout, of course, since it already generates PostScript.
> 
> I heard about this a while back but did'nt think of using it. Do you 
> think it would be possible to get it to the speed that Word (etc.) offers?
> 
> > 
> > The main idea would be to run through the document and checkpointing at
> > various points like every few paragraphs or so--this would be tweakable
> (how
> > long to restore a checkpoint v. how long to process this part of the
> > document).  Keep track of which checkpoints produced which page.  To
> > re-render a paragraph jump to the checkpoint in the stream just ahead of
> > that paragraph and then shove the new lout code through until that page
> gets
> > emitted.  It's almost random-access.  Lout seems optimized for
> low-memory
> > usage, so I would expect the size of a checkpoint file to stay
> relatively
> > constant, no matter how far into the document you are.
> > 
> > Then I would do a simple diff of the DPS output to what is on the screen
> so
> > that only things that have changed would need to be re-rendered, if that
> is
> > a performance issue.
> > 
> 
> Has anyone tested lout's performance?, could it be optimized further?
> 
> Alex
> 
> > Monty
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From:     Alex Kellett [SMTP:address@hidden
> > > Sent:     Monday, May 17, 1999 4:43 AM
> > > To:       Lout
> > > Subject:  Lout gui
> > > 
> > > To anyone interested,
> > > 
> > > I'm just about to start a nearly-WYSIWYG editor for lout, i'll be
> putting
> > > it
> > > under GPL (what is lout's license?). If anybody has started such a 
> > > project or heard of the starting of one then could they reply with
> info 
> > > of the project?. I become interested in writing a gui on seeing LyX,
> and 
> > > a lot of my ideas for the project will be based on LyX / Micro$oft
> Word.
> > > The central idea being a style system as advanced as LyX but with the 
> > > ease of use of Word, and a greatly improved diag/eq editing system.
> > > 
> > > If anybody has any ideas or would like to aid the project (later on in
> 
> > > development - I would prefer to keep it closed until sep '99) then I 
> > > would be gratefull for any response.
> > > 
> > > TIA,
> > > 
> > > Alex Kellett
> > > 
> > 
>