Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!oliveb!amiga!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 'Virtual Monitors'
Message-ID: <9228@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 6 Jan 90 00:44:18 GMT
References: <18316@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 34

in article <18316@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, matthews@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) says:
> Xref: cbmvax comp.sys.amiga:49325 comp.sys.mac:48949

> In article <1086@crash.cts.com> uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) writes:
>>  You CAN do this on the Amiga no problem, what you cannot do on the Mac II
>>is create custom screens with your preferred resolution (up to about 710X490). 

> This flexibility violates the spirit of a multitasking OS.  A program
> shouldn't be able to unilaterally modify the appearance of another
> program's window.  Allowing programs to change resolution or screen
> depth means that they can monopolize a shared resource, namely the
> screen.

But that's why you have custom screens on an Amiga.  No one (at least, no one
who's well behaved) modifies the color or resolution of the Workbench screen 
(eg, the default screen) except perhaps the User, via a preferences program.
Applications that decide they need a particular set of color|resolution that
is different that the default can freely open it's own custom screen.  This
screen is not a public, shared resource, but something private to that 
application, and in no way violates the spirit of multitasking.

> The Mac has one problem in this regard, in that programs can change the
> color palette for a screen.  

And the user can't!  I've been trying to get the durn Mac II cx in our lab 
to display my choice of colors on the 2 color screen, rather than the 
black and white that Apple has apparently decreed are My Preferred Colors.

> Jim Matthews
> Dartmouth Software Development
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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                    Too much of everything is just enough