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From: alien@cpoint.UUCP (Alien Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: 'Virtual Monitors'
Message-ID: <3329@cpoint.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 90 16:02:51 GMT
References: <17514@rpp386.cactus.org> <9191@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Reply-To: alien@cpoint.UUCP (Alien Wells)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Distribution: usa
Organization: Clearpoint Research Corp., Hopkinton Mass.
Lines: 29

In article <9191@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>...  The Amiga's Intuition interface has a feature that's more
>like what I'd think of as virtual monitors -- it can support any number of
>separate monitor displays on a single monitor, via kind of a superwindow
>called a Screen.  Any number of windows live on each screen; screens don't
>overlap each other, windows do.  This is really useful for avoiding excessive 
>numbers of windows on the single screen most WIMP interfaces provide (even if 
>that single screen can spread across multiple physical monitors).  Does the 
>Mac OS allow anything like this under Multifinder?  It probably should.

Actually, the main 'reason' for amiga screens is the fact that if you want to 
control the color registers or screen resolution you have to have your own 
area of the monitor which is vertically tiled (ie: doesn't overlap horizontally
with anyone with a different color register set or screen resolution mode).  
This seems much more applicable to PC systems with their CGA/EGA/VGA/8514A 
graphics cards than the mac which concentrates on the pixel plane depth.

I will grant you that separate screens can give you a certain organization 
and functional grouping of your windows, but amiga screens are a cludgy way
to implement it.  If I wanted to do something similar for the mac, I would
make a type of desktop-window that contained a desktop.  Clicking on the 
desktop-window would activate that desktop.  The desktop-window would be a 
scrollable, sizeable window on the desktop (and thus eliminate screen-size 
restrictions on the desktop).  You could then have as many desktops as you 
want, and size/place/overlap them to your heart's content.
-- 
--------|	Rest assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
Alien   |   		would scarcely get your feet wet.	- Deteriorata
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