BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 04-07-92 (04:07) Number: 138
From: SCOTT WUNSCH Refer#: 33
To: RICK PEDLEY Recvd: NO
Subj: MDA text attributes Conf: (2) Quik_Bas
On 4 April 1992, Rick Pedley wrote to Scott Wunsch...
RP> On 04-03-92 SCOTT WUNSCH wrote to Rick Pedley...
^ ^ ^
Glad you think I'm important enough for all-capitals <g>
RP> SW> On April Fool's Day, Rick Pedley wrote:
RP>
RP> I was considering some kind of hoax for today, you know "I've managed
RP> to write an entire operating system in PDS 7.1, no libraries!", but I
RP> couldn't think of anything good -- maybe next year.
What's so hard about writing an operating system? <g>
RP> SW> I happen to have a mono system handy. It will change any invalid
RP> SW> colour combination (eg. COLOR 3,1) to 7,0 before displaying to
RP> SW> ensure readability. However, it considers 15,7 to be one of these
RP> SW> invalid combinations and will change it, too.
RP>
RP> Thanks. I think I'm going to ditch the MDA-compatible idea, but
RP> leave an /m switch so the user can force monochrome on displays that
RP> are semi-MDA compatible, like VGA's with monochrome monitors, and LCD
RP> screens will probably benefit from it too. MDA comatibility is the
RP> kind of thing that's easiest to build in from scratch.
Better than using /M (or /BW), why not have the program detect that for
you? Here's a little code that sets a flag if an MDA adapter is present:
DEF SEG = 0
IF PEEK(&H463) = &HB4
Colour = FALSE
ELSE
Colour = TRUE
END IF
If you need more detection than that, I have a routine that can identify
MDA, CGA, Mono EGA, Colour EGA, Mono MCGA, Digital MCGA, Colour MCGA, PGA,
Mono VGA, and Colour VGA. It's kinda long, though.
-= Scott \\'unsch =-
... OFFLINE 1.36 * Energizer bunny arrested, charged with battery
--- Maximus 2.00
* Origin: The Green Zone - Regina, Sask, Canada (1:140/23)
