Hmm, been a while since I updated this.
Submited a few patches for gtk+ 2.0. Mostly UI stuff. I
don't mean making the widgets look prettier which is what
many people think of when you mention the UI word. I mean
making the users interactions with the widgets richer and
more predictable.
I've been testing the performance characteristics of
different coding styles on pixel manipulation lately.
Results from these tests will be used to make sure that GEGL pushes pixels faster than
oil
companys destroy wildlife refuges.
Things I've learned so far:
- On the sgi good code beats bad code by about 50%
- On a P3 or Athlon good code beats bad code by about
600%
- On the G4 good code beats bad code by about 375%
- Altivec is a well designed, well documented, well
suported and easy to use instruction set.
- MMX is a half-assed, less-well documented, unsuported
pain in the ass.
- Altivec can with only a very small investment of time
speed
up your code by 350% (even without using the memory prefech
instructions)
- MMX takes a signifigant amount of time and effort to
code with, but eventualy you will have a faster less
understandable program
MMX has been out for years now. Why can't compilers
generate MMX instructions automatically. Why isn't there a
simple to use interface to the SIMD instructions on the pc
platform? Why can't you write programs that take advantage
of MMX without dropping down to asembly language? Why the
heck hasn't intel submited patches to gcc to make it easy
for programmers to take advantage of their SIMD
instructions? It would sell a heck of a lot more chips than
paying those blue apple using freaks to dance around on
their television commercials.