Stevie (vi clone)

[Larry A. Shurr]

In article <uJ2eo1w162w at cybrspc> cybrspc!roy at cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes:
>bobmon at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes:
>> FWIW, v3.69 has many functional improvements over v3.68.  For MSDOS users,
>> it also supports BIOS video, which is less pelasing (to me) but faster.

>I've played about pretty extensively with Stevie 3.69 whilst modifying
>it for BBS use (under MS-DOS). I have compiled both with and without
>BIOS video writes. The non-BIOS routines are _significantly_ faster on
>my machine. The only difference I can see is that BIOS video doesn't
>require the NANSI driver. Perhaps I just have a lethargic BIOS?

It is possible that yours is more lethargic than usual.  As the author of
the "BIOS-only" option, I can tell you that the goal of that option was
not speed, but: 1) ability to do without nansi/nnansi.sys which has
restrictions on its commercial use which could be a problems for some
folks and 2) ability to run on the TIPC.  While speed was not my primary
goal, I did all I could to make video output reason- ably quick -- some
ways of using BIOS video output are mmmuuuuccchhh slower than others.

Unfortunately, the PC video BIOS calls are slow under the best of
circumstances.  The TIPC video BIOS has options unavailable in the PC 
BIOS which substantially improve its throughput.  That's why the PC's
BIOS is so often bypassed -- it's so slow.  That's also why there are
programs like nansi/nnansi and FANSI-console which replace the video
BIOS with faster code (well, faster technique and code).

I compared nansi-dependent and BIOS-only Stevie on an AT&T 6386 and on
a 6300.  The differences were hard to evaluate, but it did not appear
that BIOS-only Stevie was substantially slower than nansi.  "Your
mileage may vary," as they say, depending on your configuration.

Writing a direct-video output option wouldn't be hard, though testing
it with multitudinous video adaptors and their attendent options
might be.  Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to write and test
it at the moment, but I wonder what the interest level is since I
hope to be in a better position soon.  This is the first I've 
heard about Stevie in a long time.  It didn't seem much like 
anyone even cared about it, much less had any opinions about the
video output.

regards, Larry
-- 
Larry A. Shurr (cbnmva!las at att.ATT.COM or att!cbnmva!las)
The end of the world has been delayed due to a shortage of trumpet players.
(The above reflects my opinions, not those of AGS or AT&T, but you knew that.)