[Gnash-dev] Re: Text quality

[Rob Savoye]

Udo Giacomozzi wrote:


> Do we still need the Cairo backend (provided that AGG works)? Is there
> any really working backend except for the OpenGL one?

  There are both a D3D and XBox backends that I know people are using
with GameSWF. They're included in Gnash, but I have no idea if they
truly work anymore. I think the rendering changes you are making will
enable the Cairo backend to become more fully functional. I would like
to see the Cairo finished one day, as it's being used for the foundation
for GTK2, and would offer good integration with that platform for the
standalone player. Cairo also has an OpenGL driver, so my thought was to
drop the direct OpenGL backend, and replace it with Cairo, optionally
using it's own OpenGL driver.

  But with the AGG backend becoming more fully functional, yes. Cairo
support is less critical once Gnash supports a 2D framebuffer backend of
any kind. That opens up a huge world of devices I'd love to see Gnash
running on.

> Anyway, we could use the AGG routines to draw the bitmap cache
> in-memory even for the OpenGL backend. That would make everything much
> easier.

  I think that's what Cairo does, and probably the simplest thing for
Gnash to do. Ideally as the renderer becomes more vector based, we can
just product the bitmap for OpenGL when needed.

> Can someone verify that the AGG licence allows us to integrate AGG
> into the Gnash source tree?

  It's one of those dual-licensing messes, more public domain (modified
BSD) than anything else. I don't believe there would be any issues with
it being used by Gnash as a optional backend. It also appears to be part
of many standard distributions, so it shouldn't create any dependency
issues.

        - rob -