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From: tecot@momenta (Ed Tecot)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Window drop shadow trivium
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.232909.9756@momenta>
Date: 4 Sep 90 23:29:09 GMT
References: <1444.26e3ecdf@waikato.ac.nz>
Organization: Momenta Corporation
Lines: 23

ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:
>I hadn't noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but there's
>an interesting little fudge with the drop shadows on the standard document
>windows on machines with the 256K colour ROM (Mac II, IIx, IIcx and SE/30).
>...
>I was told that this was done to avoid a complicated-shaped window
>structure region, which would have slowed down window updates.

That's right, it was painfully slow without it.

>This fudge is undone in the 512K ROM; I guess Apple feels the IIci
>and IIfx are fast enough to handle the extra detail.
>
>Also, I noticed that, under System 7.0a9, my Mac II displays the
>drop shadow the "way it should"! Either Apple have some new, faster,
>code, or they've decided that the speed gain isn't worth the
>compromise to the design of the user interface...

Both reasons are correct.  32 bit QuickDraw, which is standard on the
IIci and IIfx, as well as System 7.0, include performance enhancements
which made it possible to go back to the old drop shadow.

						_emt