Re: Rethinking the design of xwidgets

[Arthur Miller]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

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>
>>    > do believe if Elisp
>>    > via Emacs let one do some cool visual stuff, like programming some
>>    > graphics, and doing drawing in the editor would make it more useful and
>>    > more efficient. Also I see it as a one brick in making Emacs more
>>    > popular. I personally think it would be super cool to see Emacs do 3D
>>    > with Elisp,
>
>   > > Would this be a feature that works acceptably fast
>   > > only if there is nonfree software in your system load?
>
>   > Like I described, modern Intel GPUs are reasonable fast at OpenGL 
>   > already.
>
> In the Free World, we don't get the modern Intel GPUs.  The computers we can 
> use -- because we can turn off the Management Engine -- are the X200 and T400.
Just a thought: if a computer is detached from the "grid"; i.e. not
connected to the Internet, is it still considered not usable? I mean if
you get a modern computer, but don't use it online, just as a computing
device. Or can there be a hidden wifi card in a cpu that connects to any
open network? 

> Would this feature run fast enough on them?
I wish I could give you an answer, but I really have no idea.

I just would like to enable OpenGL context for an Emacs frame and to
draw some textured polygons to display in an image in Emacs buffer. And
make some Lisp binding to at least few important OpenGL functions to
upload polygons and textures in a vertex buffer + some shaders to OpenGL
so they can get rendered. Seems like non-accelerated Cairo graphics work
well, there is already a minor mode to render some rounded rectangles
with SVG. I don't know how that runs on older computers.

How fast would it run depends on what people will do with it.