The reason I chose 804, thats 709 plus my local version increments since
709.

Ok first let me say that this is just a beta.  There are known cosmetic
(small) bugs with some of the code.  I felt it was necsesary to get
this stuff into the public ASAP.  For instance the X window people
really need to be using the new graphics system.  I am very concerned
that they have spent alot of time on code they will be re-writing now.
I asked them to drop me a note but no one replied.

Anyway, there are few patches to the main amiga source tree all of 
which were nec. and proper.  Note however that I made a patch to
the main sources, sys/sys/ioctl.h had a bug (IOCBASECMD(x) was incorrect.)
my code depends on this being right so I included my change.

I did not get to clean up my include messiness in amiga/cc_* stuff
or in grf_cc stuff, however I did switch the grf_* stuff over to
the BSD style of users including what they need.

This release is a major update in the area of graphics.  All parts 
are not fully done yet but they work and work solidly.  The interface
(grf) for monitors can be considered frozen (we may add cosmetics 
later but nothing funcitonal.)  So that people wishing to write 
monitor code can do so now.  

If you are going to write a monitor you can use my code as an example
it may get complex and overwhelming though because of the complexity
of supporting the custom chips.  So you may want to start of only 
with the grf_* stuff and then consult the grf_cc stuff when needed.

In the area of the ite.  I have consolidated all the monitor dependent
files into a single ite_std.c file.  This was possible due to the 
new view device (more on that in a little bit)  The ite now has 
support for _underline_ and BOLD attributes as well as continuing 
support of inverse as before.  Becuase of these additions the font
programs need to be updated (I added the code in fontdumper and
changed the kernel_font.c.distrib to get you started.)  The only
thing that gets added is kernel_font_(baseline|boldsmear) attributes.

All known ite scrolling bugs and repeating bugs are fixed in this version.
(actually there is one, but I need to get this out.)

The new ``/dev/view??'' are the character devices that replace the
old ``/dev/grf''.  These new psuedo-devices represent a single monitor
screen.  They go through the new grf interface in a portable way.
All programs will interface graphics on Amiga-BSD through these devices.
(ite does)

I will shortly (a day or two) be releasing some example code on how
to program with the view?? devices.  For now let me give you an
example on how to map the bitmap data into your process with the
view device.

bitplane_data = mmap (0, size, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_FILE, fdesc, 0);

``size'' is the number of bytes of bitmap data to map. ``fdesc'' is the
file descriptor returned from open().

There are some major bugs with mmap()'ing the 709 grf device.  The largest
being the allowing of processes to quickly vm_fault the kernel. (one access).
These are gone now.

Support for the custom hardware is now in the kernel, things such as a 
``/dev/audio'' will probably be written.  Its easy now.  Any way, the ite
bell now goes through this interface.

Some missing stuff: mouse pointer.  sorry sprites are not retargetable* 
X windows is however and when that is done you will get your pointer 
back (exactly what was it doing there anyway?)

A screen blanker.  This is a very easy one I hope to have installed
into the system in a upcoming patch (maybe 20 lines of code needed)
Again I need to get this out now so it was skipped.

I hope everyone enjoys the new code features.  Now i can try and get 
emacs working...

Chris...

(this was written after a 20 hour stint to try and finalize stuff please
forgive mispellings and improper grammar.  thanks)
--
(* spites could be but I didn't make them.)