[GRASS5] Grass monitor library

[Glynn Clements]

pcpa at conectiva.com.br wrote:

>   I am implementing a front end to grass, where I am creating my own monitors,
> so that I can layout better my application, can put function buttons around
> the monitor(s) screen(s), etc.
> 
>   I believe there are some problems with the current library. Function names
> are not very sugestive :-), it is very easy to get space name problems. But
> the biggest problem is that it uses all around global variables. It should
> have some sort of context, so that the library could manage several monitors
> at once.
> 
>   It clearly also needs some better error handling, bounds checking, and at
> least for the code that use fifos, there are several places were it can block
> forever.
> 
>   What is the current status of the monitors code at src/display/devices/?

It's now in a state where, once GRASS 5.0 is released, we can throw
the whole thing in the bin and start again from scratch.

Seriously.

Look at the default "monitorcap" file:

	#4105:driver/4105:Tektronix 4105: \

If the original architecture was designed with those sorts of
limitations in mind, it's probably had its day.

Basically, src/display/devices and src/libes/raster need to go, with
src/libes/display (and a fair number of programs) being re-implemented
on top of better foundations.

But right now, the priority is to get 5.0.0 out of the door so that
end-users have a single, more-or-less stable version instead of the
moving target of whatever was in CVS at the time. This really isn't
the time for another major change to the existing monitor
architecture.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>