Using IIgs color text modes

[Payton Byrd]

Do you have to be using the IIgs in 16-bit mode to use the IIgs's color text modes? If not, how would you go about writing to the screen? Is there a good example of source code that manipulates a full color text screen?

[Steve Nickolas]

The only color text mode I know of is the regular //e-compatible text
mode, which only allows you to set one foreground color, one background
color, and one border color, all of which can be manipulated from 8-bit
space.

The other alternative, and I think it would require some special
initialization to get the page layout right but writing would perhaps
still be possible from 8-bit mode, is to use 320x200 graphics mode and
EMULATE text mode.

-uso.

[David Schmidt]

You (Payton) may be confusing this with the C64's ability to write
arbitrarily colored text on an arbitrarily colored background (where
"arbitrary" means one of 16 colors). The GS has no such mode.

[Payton Byrd]

No, I received a menu program on the system build I got with my Focus HD controller. I cannot remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it does a full color text screen. Maybe it's simulated text as stated above, but it's an 80 column display so probably using 640x200x16, which I hope is accessible from 8-bit space.

[Eric Rucker]

Payton Byrd <plb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> No, I received a menu program on the system build I got with my Focus HD controller. I cannot remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it does a full color text screen. Maybe it's simulated text as stated above, but it's an 80 column display so probably using 640x200x16, which I hope is accessible from 8-bit space.

ProSEL? That's using the 640x200 2bpp dithered mode to get 16 color text
graphically.

--
Eric Rucker - http://bhtooefr.org - bhto...@bhtooefr.org

[Payton Byrd]

On Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:35:54 PM UTC-5, Payton Byrd wrote:
> No, I received a menu program on the system build I got with my Focus HD controller. I cannot remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it does a full color text screen. Maybe it's simulated text as stated above, but it's an 80 column display so probably using 640x200x16, which I hope is accessible from 8-bit space.

Found it! The program I'm referring to is ProSel 16.

[Payton Byrd]

On Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:59:16 PM UTC-5, Eric Rucker wrote:
> ProSEL? That's using the 640x200 2bpp dithered mode to get 16 color text
> graphically.

Yup, that's it. Can that graphics mode be used from pure 8-bit code? I would like to add color to A2Command on the IIgs.

[Eric Rucker]

Payton Byrd <plb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yup, that's it. Can that graphics mode be used from pure 8-bit code? I would like to add color to A2Command on the IIgs.

Yes. And, with a Video Overlay Card (or with a Carte Blanche), it can
also be used on a //e.

http://noboot.com/charlie/cb2e_p3.htm

I'll note that SHR memory is stored in $01/2000-9FFF (actually
$E1/2000-9FFF on a IIGS, but the chipset makes that appear at $01), so
that takes away a significant portion of your auxiliary memory.

[Bill Buckels]

"Payton Byrd" <plb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I hope is accessible from 8-bit space.

It is. I have written Aztec C65 8 bit ProDOS SYS programs recently that use
the SHR 320 x 200 mode. There are some funky rules about doing 640 x 400 but
you can read the docs that I can forward with my source code.

I also have a fixed pitch font that I use in my clipshop program which
converts IBM 80 column x 25 row x 16 color MS-DOS text screens to 640 x 400
x 16 color Windows BMP's. You can have those routines too... clipshop is a
win32 program but I have lots of variations on this going back to the '80's
which you can also have source for.

It would be reasonably trivial for you to write a cc65 Apple II program
which uses the arrow keys and/or a mouse and a color bitmap font for a menu
selection like I did in my Aztec C65 programs late '80's early '90's. You
can have the soure for these if you like.

It would be somewhat of a chore, but I don't think it would take me much
more than a couple of days to do a GS menu program in Aztec C...
unfortunately I haven't the time at the moment but I do have time to send
you all the code to cut and paste together.

You would need to read the technical bulletins which I have some of to
forward.

Send me PM if you are ok with getting some email with attachments and give
me an account that doesn't bounce-back attachments and I will forward you
some stuff.

Bill

[Bill Buckels]

"Bill Buckels" <bbuc...@mts.net> wrote:

> I have written Aztec C65 8 bit ProDOS SYS programs recently that use
the SHR 320 x 200 mode.

After I posted the following in here, Charlie ran some tests with this on a
real GS and on the Carte-Blanche. There were problems despite the fact that
this worked flawlessly in Kegs32. I have this parked at the moment because
nobody else tried this on a GS to my knowledge so no great interest in
here... but I've sent email to Charlie today and I'll try afew things that
he's suggested and see if that clears-up my mystery.

See below... grab this... it's got some code and docs that tell you what you
need to do to use this mode... works in kegs32 but it sure would be nice to
have this tried on someone else's GS.

Bill

x--- snip ---x


Super Hi-Res DEMOS for the GS in Aztec C are now available from the Aztec C
website at the following link:

http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/SHR.zip

This zip file contains source code, working demo programs, documentation,
and disk images for loading Super Hi-Res pictures on an Apple II GS. These
programs have been tested in Kegs32 but not on a real GS.

These programs are written in Aztec C for the Apple IIe and were
cross-compiled in Windows XP. But they will only run on a GS unless you have
Charlie's modifications loaded into a Carte Blanche on your Apple IIe.

Please review the program source code and documents for more information,
and run the programs from the disk images provided.

One of the demo programs loads raw SHR files, and the other loads SHR files
in APF (Apple Preferred Format).

It is still my intention to someday write code in Aztec C to load the other
SHR formats, as well as to write SHR vector graphics routines and other SHR
library routines that work on the GS. But regardless of whether or not this
happens, and whether or not I also write conversion utilities and so forth
that work with SHR images, the two demo programs here should prove
informative to those of you who are interested.

Thanks to Charlie and Andy McFadden for all the good info that made this
demo relatively straight-forward to put together.

Regards,

Bill Buckels
bbuc...@mts.net
July, 2013

[Bill Buckels]

"Eric Rucker" <bhto...@bhtooefr.org> wrote:
> that takes away a significant portion of your auxiliary memory.

May as well say all of it.

Make sure you warn him about shadow memory and preserving settings for the
eventual return from SHR mode.

He also needs bank-switching code.

Bill

[Bill Buckels]

"Bill Buckels" <bbuc...@mts.net> wrote:
> Thanks to Charlie and Andy McFadden for all the good info that made this
> demo relatively straight-forward to put together.

And thanks to Antoine... he has been right about many things. In this case
he zeroed in on the 2 formats that a guy should handle... I can't remember
if one of them was the APF... but the APF was the most fun... at least from
what Andy wrote about it in his Ciderpress source...

Bill

[Payton Byrd]

Bill,

Thank you for taking the time and initiative to put together this information. It is a bit of info overload at the moment, but with time I'm sure I'll be able to digest it. The purpose of this is the add color capabilities to A2Command on the GS. I would want to do it in 640x200 mode as to get the full 80 column experience. I may wind up doing the same thing on the C64 to get 80 columns there, too, although I do feel that my recent addition of stacked windows solves a lot of the unpleasantness of a 40 column screen.

[gid...@sasktel.net]

On Saturday, August 17, 2013 6:44:41 PM UTC-6, Payton Byrd wrote:
> Do you have to be using the IIgs in 16-bit mode to use the IIgs's color text modes? If not, how would you go about writing to the screen? Is there a good example of source code that manipulates a full color text screen?

If IIGS graphics is too daunting, I wrote a pretty small utility that allows one to have separate font colors and separate background colors for each of the 24 lines of the text screen. It uses both vbl and horizontal blanking, as well as keyboard input for a menu display. I can send a disk image to anyone requesting it.

Rob

[Michael J. Mahon]

It should be pointed out that if you can use a larger font (and less than
80 characters across the screen), Higher Text prints color text to the
Hires screens on any Apple II, and has since the early 1980s.

Just CALL the entry point and PRINT.

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

[Bill Buckels]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjm...@aol.com> wrote:
> It should be pointed out that if you can use a larger font (and less than
> 80 characters across the screen), Higher Text prints color text to the
> Hires screens on any Apple II, and has since the early 1980s.

You make a good point, and perhaps several. As an Apple II user my
expectation of an 80 column text application is monochrome with reverse
video on menu items. No mouse, just arrow keys. I consider that fancy. Circa
1985.

1. The necessity of 80 column color text on an Apple II menu is therefore
questionable. But the expectation of a GS user of 80 column color text is
probably realistic, even from an 8 bit program.
Keep in mind too, that on the GS, the SHR mode fills the entire screen, and
is therefore quite a robust looking display and color text is pretty.

Perhaps a config program should be used to set the terminal like the Aztec C
shell which in 1983 supported several monitor standards. The user could then
choose the desired display.

And during run-time even with the config, what an 8 bit program should do is
check if it is running on an Apple II or //e or GS and use the appropriate
display for the platform if the config video setting is not supported by the
hardware: i.e.

If an 80 column card is not installed, it should display in 40 columns. If
an 80 column card is installed but it is not running on the GS, the maximum
display would be 80 column monochrome. If on a GS it can use SHR and display
80 column color bitmapped text, or can be configured for monochrome text if
the user prefers. The user could also have some other options.

2. In the 80's I ran my Apple II text applications on my monochrome monitor
and my graphics applications on my NTSC or CVBS monitor or a small color
television with an RCA jack. I still use a two monitor system on my Apple
//e today, except I have an Apple II RGB monitor (I am spoiled today).

2.1 A little while later I had a 4 way switch for my kids and I... The
Nintendo, The Commodore 64, the Apple II... all ran through the same color
monitor to save space on the desktop. Our home was filled with computer
desks and long tables with shelves covered with computers and computer disks
and books. In my lab the GS sat with its own RGB monitor. The MAC II ci was
happy to be in monochrome. My BBS was networked on its own with dedicated
amber monitors. By the mid-90's I took my BBS down and we were wired for the
Internet. I had 2 dedicated modem lines... one for the kids and one for
myself. The kids' line doubled as a voice line. We kept our third line clear
for a home phone, and when a kid was online their friends phoned the home
line to chat voice. We had 3 Windows machines online, then my wife joined us
and then we had 4 online and cable Internet, and two phone lines, both
voice. Not too long after I always carried a cell phone. Not to text at
first. That came shortly after Y2K and still scourges my eyes a decade
later.

3. Back to the 80's. In the mid-80's we considered ourselves fortunate to
have a color CGA monitor on a 4.77 mghz IBM-PC. The Apple II and C64 went
through a color TV. 80 column text on my Apple II went through the green
monochrome monitor. The 10 meg external tandon hard drive on my PC-XT
booted through my single floppy-drive. I wore dark glasses day and night.

Higher Text in HGR on my Apple II was just fine. And I was absolutely
thrilled with 80 column text on my Apple II monochrome green-screen monitor.
I thought it was really cool when applications like ProTERM supported the 80
column display, and those applications that used reverse video and arrow
keys were amazing to me.

4. So as I sit here today Circa 1983 coding text only applications for the
Aztec C DOS 3.3 Shell I try to keep my demo stuff at the period of history
when that compiler was released. What would the programmers of the day been
able to do with the applications of the day if they had unlimited reference
material on the Internet and all the benefits of a windows machine and
emulators and disk images to develop with?

By 1990 I had all of this except I used a null modem cable to get my
applications to my Apple II where I built disks of my programs instead of
disk images. Even then, some Apple II users didn't have 80 column cards.

5. There is a stange comfort in reliving that mindset. My warmest memories
of development on any system come from my early days on those systems.
Struggling to write Windows 3.1 Multimedia applications in Microsoft C in
1992 or Working on a RISC Workstation with X-Windows in 1985 gave me less of
a thrill than my first C64 or Apple II BASIC programs or those long 8088
assembler programs I wrote for my IBM PC-XT.

But then Michael, in the 1980's, making a 90 foot long perforated tape on a
TRS-80 to be fed into a tape reader on a CNC punch-press or doing a brown
paper plot with felt pens on a 48" calcomp plotter from a Computer Vision
Mini as a layout for a Manufacturing Details Package was a thrill too... as
was burning a ROM from HEX on an Apple II to stick into a peripheral
controller.

6. Today the Apple II and the other computers of the day are what is left.
They do not need to be modernized. The compilers like Aztec C do not either.
There is enough of that around us.

Bill

PS - Phew! That was a long thought.

[Sean Fahey]

On Monday, August 19, 2013 7:09:53 AM UTC-5, Bill Buckels wrote:

> 6. Today the Apple II and the other computers of the day are what is left.
> They do not need to be modernized. The compilers like Aztec C do not either.
> There is enough of that around us.

Agreed

> PS - Phew! That was a long thought.

And a fun read. I was picturing it all as I read the post.

[Bill Buckels]

"Sean Fahey" <a2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> And a fun read. I was picturing it all as I read the post.

As I know you can:)

And I am only a mere mortal. You and the giants that are left to preserve
what was are of unimaginable stature in such matters and range in size and
paralell experience beyond what can be easily comprehended without a window
to the past. I am part of the fortunate demographic to be old enough have
this window, albeit limited by my perspective and own limitations. It is
only through the few forums that are left like csa2 that we can connect with
the community that dominated and drove the technology that I enjoyed so much
to its present day excellence, or state of chaos, depending on whether the
looking glass is half full or half empty.

Sometimes I don't even want to leave this chair to go to the can! It's
fascinating! Sean, it's like being in a candy-store. I amassed a whole
career of unanswered questions, and a huge bucket-list... and I am barely
through the early '80's and I back-filled the '70's. By the time I get to
Mike Westmoreland's Stuff I may be 100! When will I have time to finish my
wife's new kitchen?

As far as me ever getting to K-fest or meeting Woz, I may be ready in 20
years or so... but I have alot of studying to do before then and I'm not
exactly Harry Potter, but not far from it when it comes to the real thing.
Just a writer and a reader...

Sure beats watching TV tho'

Bill

[Michael J. Mahon]

Me, too--thanks, Bill!
--

[Saint Isidore - Patron Saint of the Internet]

USE Fontrix with its many libraries of fonts- you can color them all in any shade and
any color there of, You can even use different colors and/or shade of such with any
letter together. Fontrix is a ProDOS 8 program but you can use it on the IIGS with
ease. I used it for all my special effect and screens pictures. You should read its docs
to FULLY understand it. I think it's on Asimov and GSWV ( GS WORLD VIEW) a classic
one of a kind A2 & IIGS collective of everything you could name programs galore and
it has them ready to download - Fontrix with all font libraries and docs (I thing they
are all in a single} zip file archive. Use any search engine for it in many forms and
file types around the world It was made by The FTA and OSRL years age. I'm
fairly sure Oliver Z. Zardini ?? and Oliver Gogel.
pictures and info text files

Or there are IIGS - proDOS 16 and/or GSOS programs that will let you do colored
text in simple outlined letters.

http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv

for the GSWV issues and archives.

Cheers & Enjoy!

Tom :}



I hope that helps
>
> EMULATE text mode.
>
>
>
> -uso.

[Saint Isidore - Patron Saint of the Internet]

On Saturday, August 17, 2013 6:01:31 PM UTC-7, Steve Nickolas wrote:

Fontrix stuff go here for it all.

http://www.doperoms.com/search.php?s=fontrix

Tom

[Saint Isidore - Patron Saint of the Internet]

On Saturday, August 17, 2013 5:44:41 PM UTC-7, Payton Byrd wrote:
> Do you have to be using the IIgs in 16-bit mode to use the IIgs's color text modes? If not, how would you go about writing to the screen? Is there a good example of source code that manipulates a full color text screen?

....or here for all of what Frontrix offers

http://www.doperoms.com/search.php?s=fontrix

Tom