john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) (12/25/87)
It seems that ClipBlit is actually pretty smart, it has no problem dealing with different screen depths and the effect is the same as drawing with high- numbered pens, the colours wrap around. The Atari blitter is supposed to be used to speed up all sorts of memory operations through replacement ROM routines. So I'm wondering to what extent that is possible on the Amiga without going into low-level blitter programming. The first thing that occurs to me is to use a dummy RastPort or BitMap structure and use that to move things like lines of text, or perform logic operations on arrays without delving into the innermost blitter secrets. Is anyone doing this already, and if so what other uses have you found for the technique? John PS I was surprised to learn that the major reason DPaint gulps processor time is that it busy-waits even when not the active screen/window -- it continues to move the brush, crosshairs, perspective outline or what have you around its screen while you are back on the Workbench. Surely there must be some way around this? -- "...and intuition, in a case such as this, is of crucial importance." -- William Gibson, _Count_Zero_