Re: [MiNT] news from the vcons front

[Maurits van de Kamp <maurits@bassment.demon.nl>]

Steve, I assume Martin told you how to subscribe to the mintlist by now
but just in case, I'm sending this both to the list and to you. :)

> really clever stuff was done before me. I was just the goon who almost fried
> his monitors. :)

Aah yeah, I know the sounds of distress and the black screens (sometimes
with scary white patterns)..:) But in my case it's because I always have
been trying to get the most out of cheap not-S-VGA monitors with
Falconscreen and now Centscreen. :)

>     Most of the TT framework code is already in place, all that's really
> required is to give the display code details of the resolution to be used, and
> tell it to use the new resolution instead. I could probably patch something
> together in a few minutes, but I haven't got a TT, so I have no means to test
> the code.

I hope to have a TT soon. :) Btw, what I'm still puzzled about, is it
already possible on ST or TT to select the two colors used for the
monochrome display? I mean when booting with a color monitor, forcing
the ST/TT into at least medium? Or are the black/white-selection
variables in screen.c only for reversing black and white? Just curious,
I only have a Falcon myself and I already know I can select the colors
there (using yellow on blue now, Amstrad CPC nostalgia) :)

>     You're welcome, as is anyone else, to assist and try it out if you like,
> but remember to keep one hand on the reset switch when changing resolutions,
> and I won't be held responsible if running an experimental version crashes your
> harddisk, or boils your cat, or whatever. ;)

Since I don't have a cat, I'd be happy to help. :) Ok I still have to
find a good TT deal, but till that time I'd love to betatest the first
vconsd that supports 16 cols on VGA. :) Oh and I have some monitors
which aren't a big loss if they would get fried. As long as they don't
explode in my face. :)

>     I think one of the issues here is configuration. I'd be the first to admit
> that the current /etc/resolution thing is a bit of a kludge. Aside from
> anything else, it annoys me when I change monitors (running an SVGA resolution
> on an RGB monitor isn't kind). [ Feature idea: /etc/resolution.vga?
> /etc/resolution.rgb? See where I'm going? ]

It would be nice to have an ascii configuration file in which you can
set resolution settings for VGA and RGB, as well as palette settings or
color selection for 1-bit display. But that might become a bit messy
since it would still have to be written by a program unless you want to
configure the frequency stuff manually.. but well I think one XF86Config
is bad enough. :)

>     I'm also toying with the idea of optionally specifying fonts for any
> combination of italic/bold/bold-italic, or using the (default) texteffects
> instead. Certainly I think italic would look nicer if it had a custom font.

GDOS :))

Groetjes,

Maurits.