This article discusses the Media Integration Layer, the low-level rendering technology in “Avalon,” the presentation subsystem of the upcoming “Longhorn” release of the Windows operating system.
Avalon: The Blinking Lights Division
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I must say, it is probably a good idea to redefine the basic display unit in terms of absolute distance.
Definitely. I like the way Microsoft is defining 1 pixel to be equivalent to what we commonly call 1 pixel, which is a pixel on a comptemporary CRT. This will achieve the resolution independence that they want without screwing up current code or forcing developers to learn anything new.
More great work from Microsoft, Longhorn is exciting.
Although maybe the pumpkin icon would be more appropriate.
The real question is how many years it will take before KDE and then GNOME rip it off at the same time the Linux community berates the Microsoft interface.
KDE and Gnome are Desktop Environments…. Avalon is something a whole lot more/different.
Eh? The Linux community has been there, done that. Hell, lots of people did this quite awhile before.
See: EVAS and Cairo.
Microsoft is ripping the main idea (3d enhancement) off Apple. Where have you been for the last three years?
And there has been a Linux project for the last probably two years.
Wake up, read the news.
the links to what Rayiner mentioned are here:
http://cairographics.org/
http://freedesktop.org/~keithp/tutorials/cairo/cairo-tutorial.pdf
http://www.enlightenment.org/pages/pdf/evas.pdf
http://www.enlightenment.org/pages/evas.html
but yeah i guess the linux community will just pirate microsoft..
amazing how many little things gnome1.4 introduced were in windows xp btw, such as highlighting areas of the screen and blue box being drawn etc..
The time linux truly is in the lead as far as desktops go is where apple starts copying elements from it
. Thats when it has surpassed everything available to users. I would say within the next five years probably 
“Eh? The Linux community has been there, done that. Hell, lots of people did this quite awhile before.”
Well it most not have worked very well. It hasn’t been implmented very widely. Also isn’t Enlightment basically a dead project?
Innovation isn’t merely dreaming it is implementing your dreams.
I’ve not seen very many implementations of Avalon yet….
Something a lot of people tend to be forgetting is that Longhorn is still a fair ways away, anywwhere from 1-3 (or more even) years. Projects like Cairo and EVAS are here now… cairo for one has several implementations including a GTK engine that uses cairo to display the widgets. As far as enlightenment being dead, I don’t think so. While it’s certainly taking much longer than a lot would probably like, I don’t think it’s anywhere near dead. I hate to sound like someone screaming monopoly, but the position Microsoft is in makes it a lot easier for their “innovation” to become the norm. The only thing that might make longhorn a rather large rollout is simply the fact MS won’t have had a new OS in many many years. Other than that I’d say most users would stick with Windows XP, thus their innovation without their monopoly is little more than a pipe dream. Cairo does what it says it does, it’s not perfect, but neither is Avalon right now. As far as deployment goes, it’s probably just a matter of time, unless something better comes out in that period, which is the beauty of what open source users have. If MS releases avalon and it sucks, it’s only major competition is itself… they’re not forced to release anything. If Cairo sucks then someone might make it a hell ofa lot better or support a much better alternative. It’s tough to say where open source will go in the next two years, one thing is for certain, by the time Avalon IS released some of the projects we’re seeing now will be very mature and more than likely widely distributed. Given that, I think this is the one real shot Linux and other open source projects have to make their mark and gain the most amount of users — although, that’s not neccesarily a great thing.
Well it most not have worked very well.
Right. Because popularity is a measure of who well something works. Thinking like that is why the computer industry sucks so bad.
It hasn’t been implmented very widely.
And Avalon has? They’re in development right now, just like Avalon. Actually, EVAS-2 is pretty much complete, and Cairo is close to complete. Both will be much more effective once the new FD.O X server comes out.
Also isn’t Enlightment basically a dead project?
Slowly but surely wins the race.
Innovation isn’t merely dreaming it is implementing your dreams.
These dreams have already been implemented. You can download EVAS right now and play with it. Getting other people to use it, however, is something different, and not associated with the process of innovation.
agree,
evas is doing just fine,
e16 is polished,
e17 libs are almost complete,
e17 wm is to be suit them.
http://netart.eu.org/data/pic/e17-evas.jpeg
>> BFG: I must say, it is probably a good idea to redefine the basic display unit in terms of absolute distance.
>> Anonymous (—.sd.sd.cox.net): [i]Definitely. I like the way Microsoft is defining 1 pixel to be equivalent to what we commonly call 1 pixel, which is a pixel on a comptemporary CRT. This will achieve the resolution independence that they want without screwing up current code or forcing developers to learn anything new.
More great work from Microsoft, Longhorn is exciting.
Well, nothing says “I am totally clueless” like failing to understand the article and then criticizing it for holding a position that it specifically debunked.
The unit of measurement being advocated in the article is *relative*; you can go into your display properties, click the advanced button, and change the DPI setting to whatever suits your fancy. Want the new units to be 1/125″ instead of the default of 1/96″? You just drag the slider and all the elements on the screen will resize proportionately and look real nice.
Windows has had this for years; Gnome recently got a fairly comprehensive usability update that made the use of such relative units consistent within their framework, and IIRC everybody praised it. Funny, I don’t recall the two of you trying to make fun of the Gnome developers… Maybe because Linux is not spelled “MS”.
What *are* you talking about? The DPI slider in Windows only affects fonts, not drawing. That’s because fonts use relative units (points), while all other drawing uses absolute units (pixels). X has had this setting since the beginning of time!
“Right. Because popularity is a measure of who well something works. Thinking like that is why the computer industry sucks so bad. ”
Uh, in the computer industry, popularity IS a measure of how well something works.
And that’s precisely why the computer industry sucks. I mean, nobody considers the popularity of music to be a measure of its quality, do they? Or of art? How about cars? Are Camrys better than Porsches because much more of the former are sold? Popularity, in the computer industry, has about as much to do with quality as it does with the price of tea in China.
>> Rayiner Hashem: What *are* you talking about? The DPI slider in Windows only affects fonts, not drawing. That’s because fonts use relative units (points), while all other drawing uses absolute units (pixels).
That is patently false, at least on Windows.
Any Windows user who will change the DPI slider and then reboot their computer will see that not only does it affect fonts but also the sizing and layout of controls and dialog boxes. Furthermore, when one opens display properties to the appearance tab with the DPI setting at 125%, one will notice that although the listed “size” numbers for each of the various GUI elements are no different from the 100% DPI setting, the elements are larger on the screen. Why? Because controls are layed out and sized in *relative* units by default.
Your statements are patently false to Windows developers, too. Any one who has worked with the GDI knows that it works by default with relative units. You draw a circle while Windows is set at 100% DPI and it will be *smaller* than when it is drawn while Windows is set at 125% DPI even though you specified the same set of coordinates. Why? The coordinates are relative. Same with lines, rectangles, regions, etc. I don’t know if this is different on UNIX, but if you want to talk about the GDI you had better know what you are talking about.
The only thing you could be talking about when you say that on Windows “drawing uses absolute units (pixels)” is that many developers use bitmaps for custom controls, toolbars, etc. Well, duh. You want vector graphics, you use an image file format that supports such a thing. But this is completely irrelevant to my argument, which deals with what the Windows *framework* supports, has supported, and will support: relative units.
>> Rayiner Hashem: X has had this setting since the beginning of time!
How exactly did you manage to misconstrue my post into an attack on X Windows? I’ll admit the OSNews formatting is a bit buggy – spreading the italics tag across line breaks causes it to miss the closing tab, which is why the body of my previous post was italicized – but why did you not at least scan the page to find the comments I was responding to?
>> null_pointer_us: Why? The coordinates are relative.
Actually, that should be reworded as “Why? The coordinates are in relative units.”