[Cuis-dev] VectorEnginePlugin (was Re: UK Smalltalk User Group meeting - Wednesday March 31st)

[David T. Lewis]

On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 09:06:01AM -0400, David T. Lewis wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 08:48:07PM -0300, Juan Vuletich wrote:
> > On 3/22/2021 5:55 PM, David T. Lewis via Cuis-dev wrote:
> > >Hello Juan,
> > >
> > >I recall from previous presentations that development of a VM plugin
> > >was on the to-do list for your vector graphics package. Could you
> > >please say a few words about what is needed? If it is something that
> > >I could help with, I would be happy to assist.
> > >
> > 
> > Hello David, Eliot,
> > 
> > I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, and it is starting to 
> > take off! So, David, you just triggered an announcement.
> > 
> 
> Thank you very much. I will start educating myself on A, B and C
> in the next few days. Thanks for posting this  :-)
> 

Hi Juan,

I loaded VectorEnginePlugin.pck.st into the Squeak VMMaker image that I
use for generating classic interpreter VMs. The package loaded without
modification to the code, and I was able to easily generate new sources,
including VectorEnginePlugin.c.

The VM with new plugin compiled without problems on the first try, and there
are no compiler warnings.

I used this VM with a Cuis5.0-4526-v3.image, and followed your instructions
up through A - 9). It all worked without issue, and performance when rotating
or scaling M3Exp01Morph seems very impressive. This is running on an old
but still fast Intel 64-bit laptop with Ubuntu Linux.

I did find problems at step 15), with errors to the console and a hung image.
I don't have time to look at it further right now, but my guess is that
it may be something related to running the V3 image, which handles integers
and floats differently than Spur.

I am really impressed with how well the plugin worked on the very first
try, with no effort or changes from me whatsoever.

Congratulations and great work!

Dave