ross@isis.UUCP (Ross McConnell) (02/26/88)
I am considering moving the development of a data
acquisition and display system from a PC/AT to a
MAC II. I am currently reading my way through Inside
Macintosh (all 5 volumes) to get an idea of what the
programming environment will be like, but I have a few
questions that I would like to throw to the net. BTW, current
system is written in MSC 5.0, and is heavily number-crunching
and graphics oriented.
1) I am considering Lightspeed C - is this a good choice?
2) My current PC program uses the timer interrupt to
initiate data collection from an A/D card. Would the
environment be similar on a MAC II - how would I
control data acq. timing?
3) Does anyone have any experience with plugging in a
68882 math coprocessor, rather than the 68881?
4) I would like to display a rather primitive line
drawing (maybe 20-30 line segments) and have it move
after each data collection interval (maybe 30 times
per second). Where can I find out how fast
Quickdraw is at drawing line segments. Most of the
available time will be spent computing, so the
drawing itself must be fast.
Thanks for any help you can offer.rs4u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Siegel) (03/04/88)
1) LightspeedC's a good choice. I'm biased, but it's a good choice.
2) Can't answer this one; my data acquisition was done at a higher level.
3) The 68882 is supposed to be plug- and software-compatible with the 68881;
however, I understand that there are some differences in the exception
handling. You may wish to just optimize your programming rather than trying to
substitute a different chip. The Mac II wasn't designed with the 68882 in
mind, and substituting it could get you in trouble.
4) I was doing more complicated graphics in real time; QuickDraw is fast
enough that you won't have to be worried about it bottlenecking your
acquisition.
--Rich
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Richard Siegel
THINK Technologies, QA Technician (on leave)
I'm not physically at THINK, so my information may be out
of date. Be forewarned.
Arpa: rich.siegel@andrew.cmu.edu
UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,sun}!andrew.cmu.edu!rich.siegel
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