Why can't we get hold of one of the Newton software engineers and ask
them to write an ATA driver??
At 10:43 PM -0400 4/21/00, gopi@sloth.org wrote about Re: NTLK
Reinterating : COLOR Newton screens:
> > I think the question would be, does the Newton retain this color info in
>> the first place. If it just discards it, then it's a hopeless cause. If, on
>> the other hand, it retains it, but the display just doesn't display it,
>> then it should be theoretically possible, right? For instance, if you have
>> a greyscale monitor set up on your computer. Is it not receiving both
>> signals, but just ignoring the chromo? Not that I hold much hope of this
>> happening (I do own a 130) but am curious. :-)
>
>That's because the video card card is outputting the color information.
>If you happen to have a monochrome video card, then it will not be sending
>out ignored color information; the OS will be ignoring the color info.
>
>> I understand that "greyscale" images cannot be viewed in color.
>> But my point is if a low power color screen were inserted in the
>> Newton 2.1's, and applications such as the above, were created to
>> be viewed in FULL COLOR on a Newton, would we or would we not have
>> COLOR NEWTONS!?
>
>"inserted"? Sorry, but interfacing LCDs into devices like this is a bit
>complex. It's not like standard computer monitors that have a normal
>conenctor. LCD drivers are complex devices that depend on the specific
>and exact characteristics of the LCD itself. If the LCD driver is
>monochrome - and I would expect it likely is on the Newton - then it would
>be utterly impractical to replace it with a color driver.
>
>In the unlikely event that the LCD driver is capable of driving color
>LCDs, and if you can find a color LCD that fits exactly into the space
>left in the Newton, using a fully compatible touch screen design, and the
>same connectors (buy a lottery ticket; you're more likely to win the
>jackpot 10 times in a row than be this lucky) then you'll merely have to
>rewrite large sections of the OS to handle color mapping and to keep color
>information in all the screen buffers. (On a memory-starved system, you
>do not store 24 bit screen buffers...)
>
>If you have the technical ability to do all this, including the low level
>undocumented knowledge of the core OS, perahps you could write an ATA
>driver for us first? That would be an easy afternoon task for somebody
>capable of doing what I just described...
>
>Sorry for the negativity, but, well, it's just not going to happen.
>sorry.
>
>gopi.
>
>
>
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