From: nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Nan Zou)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: 7.1 vs. OS/2 and Windows NT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Date: 11 Oct 1992 13:48:57 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

Note crossposting.

johnsd2@jec304.its.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson) writes:
>nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Nan Zou) writes:

>[deletia- OLE et all]
>|> >|> The Palette Manager will do its best to allocate the desired color for
>|> >|> each application.
>|> 
>|> >Maybe _you_ can tell me then. How good is this? What does
>|> >OS/2s palette manager do, and how well? Comparted to the
>|> >Mac Palette Manager.

Dan Johnson from comp.sys.mac.advocacy raised these interesting
questions about OS/2's palette management capabilities to which
I don't have all the answers for, let's see if someone can answer 
these questions for him.

[ about OS/2 Palette Manager ]

>I meant how good is it at what it does. Does it allocate colors
>on a window basis or a system basis? Can it change existing
>default colors? (last I checked, windows colors are globally defined,
>and you can only add colors, not change extant colors)

>Does it provide a mechanism to share the color table between apps
>(probably does, this is easy) and does it handle different depths
>well? Does it provide complete default palette for all depths (windows
>palette for 256 colors contains only 20 colors :( ); does it provide
>a mechanish whereby colors can match approximately, (but still
>allocate new colors if there is nothing close enough?)

>Et cetera. That's what I want to know.

[ multiple monitors for one computer like on the Mac ]

>|> Something needs to be clarified: just because there're more than one
>|> slot doesn't mean you can put anything into those slots.  The AT archi-
>|> tecture has certain limitations, like no interrupt sharing, when video
>|> card manufacturers have those issues resolved we can talk software.

>(ahem) Ok:

>All u need is more than one slot that CAN support video cards. Can
>microchannel or EISA do this at least?

Theoretically yes, I'm not aware of anyone that has done it thought, 
market too small.

>I KNOW it can be done, it IS done in at least one debugger (Microsofts?)

If you're talking CodeView, the second monitor is usually a monochrome
text monitor for debugging purposes, Turbo Debugger can do this also,
but software has to be specifically written to support this.

>[deletia- MPC]
>|> >|> Specific hardware?  Not necessarily, you can run multimedia apps with
>|> >|> existing hardware, even digitized sound from the internal speaker/
>|> >|> beeper.
>|> 
>|> >Not quite right, but close. MPC requires a CD-ROM and a 386, last time
>|> >I checked.
>|> 
>|> Yes, but the multimedia features of Windows are a subset of the MPC
>|> spec, to get full certification you need a CD-ROM and other hardware 
>|> stuff.

>Just what ARE they then?

"they" meaning what?  The MPC spec?  Or Windows' multimedia features?
If it is the former you wanted to know, you already have most of the
information -- CD-ROM, digital and MIDI audio, 386, Windows 3.1.  If
it's the later you wanted to know, it's simply a set of API calls for
handling audio stuff and some animation.

>|> >So where's the animation w/ sound format?
>|> 
>|> Good point, they talked a lot about MIDI and waveform audio stuff, but
>|> animation is only mentioned sparsely, one gets the feeling that
>|> animation is not what they try to emphasize, the closest thing they have
>|> are some animation device definition and a set of command strings
>|> defined for that device, like open/close/play/pause.  There's no
>|> standard file format defined for animation like there is for MIDI and
>|> digital audio.  Perhaps Microsoft's idea of "multimedia" is different
>|> from others?

>Apparently. This spec IS incomplete then. Imho.

That depends on what their definition of "multimedia" is, doesn't it? ;)
By the way, I think System 7 has Sound and MIDI Manager included, how
good are they?

[ hardware requirement for Windows and MMPM ]

>|> They only require additional hardware if the hardware is not already
>|> present,

>Wha... you mean it can't SYNTHESIZE the hardware for you, like
>on star trek? :)

No, they're not THAT advanced, yet.  ;-)

>Sorry, but even if the hardware is there, it still REQUIRES it.
>Its requirements are satisfied, but they exist.

If the only thing you want to do is listening to cute startup sounds you
can use the internal speaker for that.

>[deletia- color picker, slot config]

>|> >If you like. I was just babbling myself. (didn't you notice? :)
>|> 
>|> Well I kind of have a faint idea.  ;-)

><grin>

Glad to see someone still has a sense of humor around here.

-- Nan
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy