From: Emmanuel Marty <core@suntech.fr>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 19:37:12 +0000

Re: a FAQ... been away for a while...

Hi !

>         a) What is in the kernel,

The abstract consoles, and the framebuffer consoles (fbcon) / framebuffer
memory driver (fbmem). Abstract consoles split the actual VT100 implementation

from the low-level text rendering (which is moved to fbcon - fbcon then
has drivers, such as vgafb, a textmode vga display).

This is mainly Geert Uytterhoeven's work - I added some bits here and there
and added some hardware cursor support because I couldn't stand the atari-like

one (big block :).

>         b) How does it relate to KGI,

fbcon allows us to plug a kgi driver in, and get the console to render on it.
Then
with the libggi fbmem target, you can get libggi applications to render in the

whole thing.

>         c) Is this a 'good thing' per se.

Well, bad thing is that we loose : countless hours of work on the KGI manager
(mainly Steffen's, and a more than reasonable count of mine, too) ;
console multihead ; and acceleration ioctls. The two latter will be
reimplemented
in fbcon sometime soon I guess.

Good thing is that we get a compatible console, and that we can integrate
seamlessly into the kernel. Steffen is working on a new KGI that does work
100% identically to the legacy console though..

>         d) What is happening with the erstwhile EvStacks ( now changed
> name I know ).

Not much. Jason has some real-life things to settle.. The display part will
disappear from it anyway, but the evstacks should really be worked on..

--
Emmanuel