Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!letni!rwsys!spudge!johnm
From: johnm@spudge.UUCP (John Munsch)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer
Subject: Re: Suitability of Windows platform
Message-ID: <28223@spudge.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 91 15:16:45 GMT
References: <27331@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1991Mar8.014410.22510@qualcomm.com>
Reply-To: johnm@spudge.UUCP (John Munsch)
Organization: Friends of Guru Bob
Lines: 34

In article <1991Mar8.014410.22510@qualcomm.com> rdippold@maui.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:
>In article <27331@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) writes:
>>1.  Does Windows support joystick (at all) and mouse and joystick
>>simultaneously?
>
>No built in joystick support.  No problem with you accessing the joystick,
>though.

Multimedia Windows adds joystick support.  Consult the article on Multimedia
Windows in the latest issue of Microsoft Systems Journal for more information.

>>2.  Can I write a 8+ bit ONLY application under Windows, or will it dither
>>to lower (4-bit) resolution?
>If your video driver/card can handle 8 bits it will do the true 8 bits, other-
>wise it will dither.

Windows 3.0 is capable of dithering ONLY solid areas of color for you.  If you
blit 8 bit data to a 4 bit display driver you will not get a dithered version
of the bitmap, you will get a version of the bitmap with weird colors.  Any 
bitmap dithering must be done by you, if you want any.  If you don't then
Windows will happily let you take advantage of 8, 16, or 24 bit display
adapters.

>>6.  How good is Windows in doing frame animation?
>It sucks.  Horribly.  You can't do page flipping or any other reasonable
>way of animation.

If you had a video card with a high speed blitter and a video driver that took
advantage of it, it wouldn't be so bad.  It wouldn't be as smooth as animation
on an Amiga because ther are no provisions for double buffering, but it wouldn't
be terrible.  Without a blitter though, it sucks louder than a Hoover.  Believe
me, I've done it.

John Munsch