Re: What is the buffer?

<needin4mation@xxxxxxxxx> schrieb: 
I just want to know what the buffer is in relation to graphics
programming

An exemplary buffer is a heavy construction of steel, mounted to the ends of railroads to stop trains leaving the track, given that the train wasn't moving to fast. Physically this means that it (possibly reversible) stores
the kinetic energy of the train.

Likewise, programmers use buffers to store (possibly irreversible transformed) information, normally intermediate results of calculations.
Such a buffer stop the information stored in it's items from beeing needed
to repeatedly be recalculated. The work on data is "parked" in the buffer,
probably "freeing" the machine, so that it can work on other things.

Ther's nothing special about "buffers", it's just another name for
"a piece of (possibly temporary) dedicated memory".

Is the concept of the buffer universal in graphics programming? 

No. The term "buffer" only genericly binds memory to a specific purpose,
so that it's just as universal as the purpose. For example, the buffer

TYPE Tdirection = record
x,y,z : Trational;
end;

VAR
buffer : Tdirection;

would be able to store many 3-dimensional vectors, but since there might
be ordinates wich can't be represented by Trational, the buffer isn't
universal, but might in contrast be called universal, if in the context
of discussion only ordinates fitting into Trational are taken into account.

The concept of dedicating memory in whole is "circumscriptus", "soliversal",
since it always takes memory and a purpose, and the outcome is dedicated memory, and noone can garantee there is a buffer for any purpose. The pupose to store the complete numeric base10 representation of sqrt(2) can't be stored in a buffer, if I remember correctly, since programmers only have technical memory to dedicate.

Gruss

Jan Bruns


.

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