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- Path: sparky!uunet!enterpoop.mit.edu!eru.mt.luth.se!kth.se!cyklop.nada.kth.se!d88-jwa
- From: d88-jwa@cyklop.nada.kth.se (Jon Wtte)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
- Subject: Re: Depth and Device Manager Questions
- Keywords: Maximum Depth, Device Manager, Direct Device
- Message-ID: <1992Dec13.212259.21979@kth.se>
- Date: 13 Dec 92 21:22:59 GMT
- References: <1992Dec12.055906.19092@cc.uow.edu.au>
- Sender: usenet@kth.se (Usenet)
- Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
- Lines: 50
- Nntp-Posting-Host: cyklop.nada.kth.se
-
- In <1992Dec12.055906.19092@cc.uow.edu.au> geoff@cc.uow.edu.au (geoffrey roberts) writes:
-
- >realise that after (and including) system 6.0.5 I can recursively call
- >the HasDepth function passing to it every possible depth. This seems
- >a little long winded. Is their a cleaner way?
-
- Yes, you can call ite iteratively... :-)
-
- Since there are only 6 different bit depths, what's unclean
- about this? (10 if you count gray-scale as well)
-
- >Secondly, if using the HasDepth function is the only possible way of
- >determining the maximum depth of a device, how can I find the maximum
- >possible depth of a device before system 6.0.5? All we know is that
-
- As far as I know, you can't. Instead, check what depth the various
- screens are in, and if you find none suitable, exit with an alert
- saying you need XXX. Let the user change. Or just plain require 6.0.7
- which is a much less buggy system.
-
- > In this code calls are being made to the device manager, yet Inside
- >Macintosh Vol II it states:
- >"The display screen is not a device; drawing on the screen is handled
- >by quickdraw"
- >Does this apply to pre-colour machines only. ie, Can I use device
- >manager calls to communicate to the graphics card - (NOT TO THE SCREEN)
-
- Well, that depends on how compatible you want to be. There are,
- for instance, screens that draw via SCSI - or over a network!
- Those will not even have devices associated. There is also
- internal video in many Macs, but it's done so that it looks
- like a slot.
-
- >Finally, would this call work on machines that use the PDS slot for
- >their graphics card?
-
- I'm not sure ANYTHING is guaranteed; you will have to make hard
- choises between compatibility and what rules you feel you have to
- break. If at all possible, include a "Use Only QuickDraw" checkbox
- (that's ON at first start!)
-
- Cheers,
-
- / h+
-
- --
- -- Jon W{tte, h+@nada.kth.se, Mac Hacker Deluxe --
-
- Speed is arbitrary. Don't believe me? Try a PowerBook 180 running
- System 7 against a 486 laptop running Windows 3.1.
-