<Evilb00n> irssi has no GUI
<Evilb00n> otherwise I'd use that
<baldurk> irssi is actually rendered in opengl with sprites but the sprites just happen to be text characters only
<Evilb00n> what
<Evilb00n> I had to use PuTTy to even start irssi
<baldurk> yeh irssi has a plugin that OCRs the screen and pipes it over ssh
<baldurk> but the real client is rendered in opengl for performance reasons
<Evilb00n> I see
<baldurk> it's just too inefficient to use only text
<Evilb00n> how is using graphics more efficent?$
<Evilb00n> isn't that just wasted processing power?
<baldurk> it can blit straight to the gpu instead of going through the OS font layer
<Evilb00n> ah
<Evilb00n> so unless there's specifically a way to bypass the OS, it's less efficent to use pure text
<Evilb00n> right?
<baldurk> exactly, but OSes have built in protections  against that
<Evilb00n> why would you protect against something as inane as that?
<baldurk> the OS font layer is usually done at ring 0
<baldurk> so it's all embedded in the security subsystem
<baldurk> that's partly why font rendering is so slow because it goes through so many additional security checks
<Evilb00n> wow, and they haven't thought of a way to let other programs use their own font?
<baldurk> no you can use your own font but you've got to upload it through the font subsystem
<Evilb00n> I mean without the whole security check thing
<baldurk> so that's why it's slow, and sprite rendering over the GPU and doing the font yourself is fast for things that need it ie. irc clients
<baldurk> no the security checks just prevent unauthorised access
<Evilb00n> hh, so irssi works a lot like SNES games did when using text
<baldurk> programs can still use their own fonts
<baldurk> kind of yeh, same principle
<baldurk> but back then they did it because the hardware just was slow, now it's to get around the red-font-tape
<Evilb00n> what exactly could you access with just plain text?
<baldurk> it's not that the font is inherently a security risk it's just that it has to be done at a low-level, so it has to go into the secure group of OS functions
<Evilb00n> and there's no other way of doing it?
<baldurk> nope
<Evilb00n> that sucks
<baldurk> yeh it does
<Evilb00n> can't they make two seperate font groups
<TrinTragula> and its not really all you need to make it through the font is inherently a security consultant for the two (mod edit)s
<Evilb00n> like one for just the OS
<GokuToku420> bad idea
<Evilb00n> and another one that's for everything else
<baldurk> yeh that wouldn't be good at all
<Evilb00n> why?
<baldurk> for one you've got the risk that people could figure out the 'insecure' font rendering code and use it as an attack vector for the real OS
<baldurk> there was a bug like this in adobe pdf reader
<Evilb00n> so there's no way to render any kind of text without the OS having to help?
<Evilb00n> barring console only OS of course
<baldurk> well like I said you can do it manually via sprites
<baldurk> that's the most common technique really
<lithuanian_dad> shouldn't you know this stuff, b00n? aren't you studying something it-related?
<Evilb00n> I finished an apprenticeship, yes
<baldurk> but it means you don't get many bonuses related to OS fonts so it's usually used by programs where performance is the 100% top priority
<Evilb00n> but I specialized in network security
<baldurk> like irc apps etc
<lithuanian_dad> oh
<baldurk> other programs like word or whatever take the performance hit
<Evilb00n> heh, so word would be faster if it used sprites instead of fonts
<Evilb00n> that's rather ironic