Porting ALLEGRO to PocketPC

[danyblue]

Hi all,<br>I have known allegro from the days of DOS programming, and used it with DJGPP. The other day while going through old code, i have come to some code made in Allegro. So the idea came to me, Why not port the Allegro library to PocketPc and take advantage of all the libraries,utilities and other source codes largely available in the NET.<br>I have alreay begin, and i was wandering if some one is willing to help me?<br><br><br>Regards,<br>Danyblue

[JonP]

This would seriously rock!<br><br>But no..............I can't help you

[CARPEDIEM]

what's allegro?<br>

[esw]

Allegro is a graphics/sound library for DOS.. For making games. Thats all I know

[danyblue]

Not just for dos but for Windows, Linux and BEOS. It have a lot of capabilities and there is a lot of free source code around the net that could help to accelerate the appearance of software for the PocketPC.<br>You can see some of the examples on the depot that exists www.allegro.cc<br><br><br>Danyblue

[Jim]

Interesting idea, how much work do you think this would require.  <br><br>I assume just the system interface would need changing, then the other api's would work fine (more or less) in theory?<br><br>Are it's 3d capabilities any good?<br>I would definately be interested in working on this as I need to develop such an API, it would make more sense to port ALLEGRO with it's many features and cross platform possibilities.

[danyblue]

Hi,<br>the capabilities of the library are very good, some  functions are made in assembly which i think would be the most difficult task to port. I have some experience in Assembley but not with the major processor existing for pocket devices.<br>But most of them are implemented in C++ which could represent a more or less direct porting to the platform.<br>Regarding 3d there are some addons to the library to deal with it, and it would be addressed when i arrive there.<br>At this moment I am studying the code and the assembly for ARM and MIPS.I am trying also to get in contact the original creator of the library to get more information and some support. At this moment the library is just available for Win32,Linux and Beos.<br><br><br>regards,<br>Danyblue<br>

[MirekCz]

Why to bother? EasyCE is there, it's pretty nice and it gets new functions all the time...

[danyblue]

EasyCe is a very good library and i use it a lot, but sometimes it just get short and you must implement a lot a functions in order to be able to implement your Idea.<br>Allegro is a graphic library that already exist for years and that a have a huge base of knowledge and code that you can use on your own programs, you can take a look at www.allegro.cc<br><br>Regards,<br>Danyblue

[MirekCz]

danyblue:well, if you love it so much go and port it, we all are waiting for your results...

[danyblue]

This is just what I am trying to do ...<br><br><br>Danyblue

[jongjungbu]

I think perhaps the finer point here is that porting the Allegro library will allow the porting of other programs using it's libraries. Perhaps this would increase the number of available games to choose from as well...if interface problems are resolved in these new additions.

[danyblue]

I am looking at the code, and most of the functions are very easy to port, there is some functions that must be adapted to the ones that exists in the C++ set that is used by evc++.<br>There are some ASM functions that are dealing with the physical access to the memory that is used for the disply, that i don't know which would be the best way to port:<br><br>- Implement them in native ARM and MIPS native asm..<br>- Used GAPI or other library like Jacco´s Easyce to implement it.<br><br>The first one would be much more performant, although I don't know at this moment how it could be integrated with the Pocketpc Operating System...<br>The second alternative would be much easier, but the drawback would be on performance...<br><br>Does any one have some experience in dealing with situations like the first point (Evc++ - Native ASM - Pocketpc)?<br><br>Regards,<br>Danyblue

[Gianni]

helo,<br>i think that you go to the first option. speed is important, especialy if you think about porting the code that already exists to allegro.<br>I don't know much about assembley bute i can try help you.<br><br>Chiao<br><br>Gianni

[danyblue]

Gianni:<br>It is the option that i would like to implement. But I don't know if the level of complexity wouldn't be to much, which would enlarge so much the development effort need to port the library.<br>In the other end, it is the best option to have a very high performant library that could take full advantage of the hardware.<br>I remember from the old times where every game that was made was in a large percentage implemented in ASM.<br><br>Regarding the ASM, information about Mips and ARM assembley is very scarse on Internet. I've been trying to find some information about arm on www.arm.com  but there is not very much information regarding Assembley.<br><br><br>Regards,<br>Danyblue