palette statememnt...

 BBS: SPOKANE CENTRAL
Date: 01-25-93 (04:11)             Number: 36
From: TIM PETERSON #145 @5930      Refer#: NONE
  To: ALL                           Recvd: NO  
Subj: palette statememnt...          Conf: (17) QuickBASIC

  What a can of worms! That statement works differently in different modes. In
cga modes(screen1), it has no effect with a cga adaptor, but you can change any
of the standard 4 colors to any color you want, but only from the 16 background
colors. In screen 9, there are 64 colors to choose from. In either case, you
simply say "PALETTE coloryouwanttochange, newcolor". If you just say "PALETTE",
you re-set the color values to the stock values.
  In the vga and mcga modes,(such as screen 11) it works the same only
different. In these modes, you can selact from over 260,000 colors. Instead of
simply choosing a number from those 260,00 colors, you specify the exact
amounts of red, blue, and gree you want. You can have any of 63 values(64
including zero) for each color. You specify how much of each by a screwy
kludge. You multiply the red value you want by 65,536, then the blue(or is it
green?) by 256, and the green value you leave alone. Add all three together
like this: PALETTE coloryouwanttochange, red*65536+blue*256+green.
  If you are still confused, you can call me up. I did figure out the palette
command pretty well 'cuz I LOVE color. I got a nifty way to bypass dos and send
colors to the ports directly, if you want. It is about ten times faster than
using the palette statement, which is important if you are trying to update all
256 colors of screen13.
  Btw, Microsoft insists on calling the number you use to specify color an
ATTRIBUTE {LINE(x,y),attribute}, and the numbers you feed the palette statement
are called COLORS. You change the attribute with the COLOR statement, no less.
I think it is easier to think of them as colornumbers and actual colors. You
assign a color to a colornumber, or use the stock color.
  I have tons of cool color routines. If you tell me what you want to do, I'll
whip something up for you.
  If all you have is cga, the palette statement does nothing, but won't cause
an error if it is otherwise allowed.
                                    [0m [31m Tim Peterson  [0m