Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!watmsg!achowe
From: achowe@watmsg.waterloo.edu (CrackerJack)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: accessory and RAM resident stuff
Message-ID: <17768@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 24 Mar 88 15:00:18 GMT
References: <8803190107.AA03238@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <1021@atari.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: achowe@watmsg.waterloo.edu (CrackerJack)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 26

>> For instance, [in an accessory] I would like to be able to use string
>> writing functions in which you can do a newline and the text will scroll
>> up without having to rewrite each line.  That pretty much precludes the
>> use of windows, which seems to be the structural backbone of desk
>> accessories. 
>
>You can do it -- but you have to take over the screen.  The VT52 emulator
>is a perfectly legal desk accessory.  When you open it, it clears the
>screen and uses the alpha text output functions of the BIOS.  When you
>hit UNDO to leave it, it clears the screen again and sends the desktop
>a redraw message so it'll all get redrawn.  (At least, that's what I
>*think* it does.)

As in my previous note on this, when I traced through the emulator
they did two things which I now do. First they save the video memory
that the menu line occupies, then on exit they restore this and do
a form_dial to restore the rest of the desktop screen. Oh. Also they
turn the mouse off during text mode.

This might be something you could add to the NEW ROMs, a way to store
or turn off the menu bar and back again.
--
Anthony C. Howe                         achowe@watmsg.waterloo.edu

"The definition of flying: throwing yourself at the ground and missing."
		- Douglas Adam's  "Life, the Universe and Everything"