Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!ugle.unit.no!okloster
From: okloster@lise.unit.no (Oddvar Kloster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: tasks which leave desktop and return
Keywords: desktop, tasks
Message-ID: <1991Apr24.220051.27269@ugle.unit.no>
Date: 24 Apr 91 22:00:51 GMT
References: <1991Apr23.135553.17810@newcastle.ac.uk>
Sender: news@ugle.unit.no
Organization: University of Trondheim
Lines: 26

In article <1991Apr23.135553.17810@newcastle.ac.uk> J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley) writes:
>I've seen a couple of desktop apps which take over the whole screen while
>they're active (ie the iconbar icon has been clicked), then return to the
>desktop afterwards without the "Press SPACE or click mouse to return to
>desktop" message. The apps in question were a home accounts program and
>!StrongEd, which you want to stay resident while you're not using them.
>
>I'm trying to do this for some PD software I'm writing - how is it done?
>I've tried to do it with a second bank of vdu ram but with no success.


I can't tell about the account program, but I know how the !StrongEd
manages. When the editor is entered, it changes the screen mode (to a
mode 12-like overscan mode)(using *wimpmode and storing the current
mode for later, I think), then it places a window of its own on top 
of the whole desktop.  Then it can use the screen pretty freely, with
little help from the wimp. When the user wants to return to the
desktop, it removes it's window and restores the original wimpmode.
So there is no need for extra vdu ram.

One undesireable effect of the mode change is that if you are using a
mode with more space (>1280,1024) than normal modes, all windows will
snap to inside the smaller boundaries when the editor is entered.  At
least they do in my version, but I haven't got the latest one.

...Oddvar