From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: torek@torek.net (Chris Torek)
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:44:01 -0700
Subject: [TUHS] X and NeWS history (long)
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:22:27 -0700."
 <201709122322.v8CNMRUu011489@darkstar.fourwinds.com>
Message-ID: <201709122344.v8CNi1w8093101@elf.torek.net>

>Well, just to nitpick, I remember that much of SunView was a library but it
>relied on special device drivers with complicated ioctls and such.  I don't
>recall that it be easily separated from the OS.

My (fuzzy) memory was that you called library routines to do
rasterops, and they consulted with the specific frame buffer
hardware in a way that, to (mis)quote Dennis Ritchie, had:

   unwarranted chumminess with the ... implementation

[see http://c-faq.com/struct/structhack.html for actual quote].

This meant if your rasterop was misbehaving, it could be a
bug in a driver, or in the hardware.

(I remember this from trying to chase down some weird rasterop
behavior, or some such.)

Chris