[Pixman] [PATCH 1/3] Add CLEAR and SRC linear interpolation operators

[Chris Wilson]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:26:09 +0200, sandmann at cs.au.dk (=?utf-8?Q?S=C3=B8ren?= Sandmann) wrote:
> Chris Wilson <chris at chris-wilson.co.uk> writes:
> 
> >> Did you see Taekyun Kim's reply to this? He proposes this API:
> >> 
> >>      pixman_image_composite_xrender(op, src, shape, clip, dst)
> >>      pixman_image_composite_bounded(op, src, shape, clip, dst)
> >>      pixman_image_composite_simple(op, src, shape, clip, dst)
> >> 
> >> instead, which would add direct one-pass support for all of cairo's
> >> compositing schemes, including clip masks.
> >
> > You're encoding operator semantics into the function call and adding
> > parameters for the rest? 
> 
> Yes, basically. It's more or less a direct translation of the three
> compositing equations that cairo uses into function calls.

But why three functions when the difference is the semantics of the
operator. Just allow Cairo to pick the operator that corresponds to Cairo's
interpretation of op + mask + clip.

> > Although pixman could benefit from faster
> > methods of rendering polygons, I do not see this as actually reducing
> > the amount of code inside Cairo as GL is effectively the lowest common
> > demoniator. (Though we desparately need a change in the Render protocol
> > so that we can feed polygons to the server more cheaply and that in turn
> > merits similar changes in pixman.)
> >
> > My gut feeling is that interface is too restrictive. You may as well
> > skip polygon images and go to paths and boolean geometry. In the
> > meantime providing an interface that matches what Cairo uses today is
> > also going to be useful for when you replicate Cairo inside pixman.
> 
> The proposed interface is basically orthogonal to the question of
> polygons in pixman. Even without polygons or spans in pixman, the
> proposed interface is a superset of what cairo needs today in order to
> implement fill() and stroke() in one pass (after rasterizing the
> polygons).

I think it may be a superset of what Cairo has today, but not of what
Cairo requires to overcome the current bottlenecks in its rasterisation
nor any changes to reduce the overheads in its public API. In that regard,
I do prefer the compositing program approach.
-Chris

-- 
Chris Wilson, Intel Open Source Technology Centre