richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (08/11/87)
Somebody here asked what screen colors work well in interlace mode. I cant find the original article, but... The flicker you see in interlace (400 line) mode is caused by a sharp difference in contrast between two colors. Black and white are about the worst. To minimalize flicker, you want to minimalize contrast. Now if you make the screen use two colors that are the same, no flicker, but, uh, you cant see it. So, you try to keep lightness and saturation constant, and only change hue. Since Preferences works with RGB not HLS, this is somewhat less than intuitive. What I did was to set my workbench to interlace and run preferences, and then spend about two weeks playing with it, seeeing what works, what doesn't. Anybody who has seen Draw Plus has noiticed that although the screen looks kind of dark, it doesn't flicker a whole lot. Thats because the lightness and saturation of the blue and grey used are pretty close, the only diference being hue. I find dark gray and black (well, not quite black, more like rgb = 2,2,4) works quite well. Also, if thats too dark for you, a light blue (~ 4,7,10) and beige (~ 9,7,5) seem to work pretty well. Its funny. When I first got my amiga I looked at the stock blue and white screen, and thought "Hmm, that has to go". I have changed it over the last 18 mos. to almost every possible color combination (red text, yellow text etc.) and what do I use now ? The original blue for background and light peach for text. Full circle. (almost) -- Richard Sexton INTERNET: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM UUCP: {akgua, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard "It's too dark to put the key in my ignition..."
baron@uhccux.UUCP (08/14/87)
The color combinations I use while in interlace to reduce flicker are a dark greenish/blue/gray background and amber/yellow text. This works pretty well, and is quite readable. I too can't stand the stock blue and white colors. -- UUCP: {backbone}!sdcsvax!nosc!uhccux!baron INTERNET: baron@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU ICBM: 21 19 N, 157 52 W
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/16/87)
> Its funny. When I first got my amiga I looked at the stock blue and white > screen, and thought "Hmm, that has to go". I have changed it over the last > 18 mos. to almost every possible color combination (red text, yellow text > etc.) and what do I use now ? The original blue for background and light > peach for text. Full circle. (almost) Funny for me, too. I use blue background with white lettering on color monitors (mainly IBMs, but also Atari 800) as a matter of course, possibly because the blue and white was the default on the 800 and I got used to it. When I started using the Amiga I expected to leave blue and white alone, though that ugly cursor went in the trash can immediately. Well, I found I was getting eyestrain. I tried switching colors around (making my wife nauseous) and ended back at blue and white, but with the white lowered in contrast to 0x999, and a little green in the blue (0x035). This is just about perfect, and just about identical to the Atari 800. It also allows the cursor to be bright (0xFF0, 0xFC0, 0xC90) and stand out better. Now that I think on it, since Jay Miner did the 800 and the Amiga, I should only be surprised that 0x999 on 0x035 wasn't the original arrangement. Now if only I can get a terminal program that (1) is small, (2) provides a good VT100, and (3) allows me to hack the menus. Matt Dillon: could you post (or mail me) dterm source, so I can try fixing some of the bugs (like: crashing, and brain damaged emulation)? Right now I use DTERM to dial, and switch to AmigaTerm for editing. -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter (I said, NO PHOTOS!)
langz@E40-334-1.mit.edu (Lang Zerner) (08/19/87)
As I recall (and that probably means incorrectly :-), the Amy screen colors are the four colors recommended by a NASA report on display monitors. Ask someone at NASA, though, before you quote me. -- Lang Zerner ARPA: langz@athena.mit.edu UUCP: mit-eddie!mit-athena!langz "No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the only misfortune is to do it solemnly" --Michel de Montaigne -- Phone: 617/666-9341 P.O. Box 247, M.I.T. Branch, Cambridge, MA 02139
hgm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks) (11/16/88)
Here's a something I pulled off a local board recently. I can't guarantee it's accuracy. All misspellings are as they appeared originally. ----------- Amiga system routine Amiga system test is a complicated set of routines which it must go through before you can do any work on it. During the system test the Amiga is attempting to let you know if the system is well. Here is a list of the start-up activities: 1. Clear all chips of old data 2. Disable DMA and interrupts during the test. 3. Clear the screen. 4. Check the hardware ....checks to see if 68000 is functioning. 5. Change screen color. 6. Do a checksum test on all ROMS. 7. Change screen color. 8. Begining of system startup. 9. Check RAM at $C0000,and move SYSBASE there 10. Test All CHIP RAM. 11. Change screen color. 12. Check that software is coming in ok. 13. Change screen color. 14. Setup CHIP RAM to receive data. 15. Link the libraries 16. Check for additional memory and link it 17. Turn the DMA and interrupts back on. 18. Start a default task. 19. Check for 68010,68020, and or 68881. 20. Check to see if thee is an exception ...processor error 21. If so do a system reset. During this system test the Amgia is sending vital information to the screen with colors. If the system checks out ok, you will see the following sequence that you have seen so meany times. DARK GRAY: The initial hardware tested OK. the 68000 is running and the registers are readable. LIGHT GRAY: The software is coming in and seems OK. WHITE: The intialization test have passed. If something is wrong with your system, you may see the following: RED: If an error was found in ROMS. GREEN: Error found in the CHIP RAM. BLUE: Error was found in the custom chips. YELLOW: If 68000 found an error before the error trapping software (GURU) was running. The Keyboard has it's own processor, RAM and ROM. A selftest is peformed on power-up in the following sequence. 1. Performs checksum on ROM's 2. Checks 64 bytes of RAM. 3. The timer is tested. 4.Performs handshake with computer and gives results of selftest. If the keyboard does not pass the test it will notify you that it is not working properly. This information is indicated with the blinking of the CAPS-LOCK light. One Blink: Keyboard ROM check failed. Two Blinks: Keyboard RAM checked failed. Three Blinks: Watch dog timer failed Four Blinks: A short between two row lines or special control keys. If you are having problems with the Amiga, perhaps these codes will help you and your repairman. This article was first authored by Roy Frisque and published on the newsletter Scanlines. Roy obtain his information from the Amiga Transactor, which is a great resource for the Amiga. AMIGA EXCHANGE 24 HRS, 3/12/24 BAUD 213-325-1796 SysOp: Robert Takahashi
bjc@pollux.UUCP (Betty J. Clay) (11/28/88)
>In article #27042, Hal G. Meeks of NCSU Computing Center >(hgm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu writes: Here's a something I pulled off a local board recently. I can't guarantee it's accuracy. All misspellings are as they appeared originally. > Amiga system routine (very long article deleted) >Amiga system test is a complicated set of routines which it must go through >before you can do any work on it. During the system test the Amiga is >This article was first authored by Roy Frisque and published on the >newsletter Scanlines. Roy obtain his information from the Amiga Transactor, >which is a great resource for the Amiga. > AMIGA EXCHANGE > 24 HRS, 3/12/24 BAUD > 213-325-1796 > SysOp: Robert Takahashi This article has appeared on our local BBS, also - and was even uploaded to CompuServe recently. The information was taken from an article I did for the TRANSACTOR around the end of 1986. I was not on Usenet at the time, but a friend was recording the messages on disk, and I gleaned much of the material about the colors from the discussions here. I especially remember input from Hans Hansen, to whom I should have given credit in the article. I apologize. The information about the keyboard startup routines was buried in very small print in the back of the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual, and I had not seen that anywhere else. I'm reasonably sure that the information is correct, else I would not have submitted it to TRANSACTOR. I cannot, however, take credit for the spelling, which I believe to belong to Roy and to Robert. They used the information from TRANSACTOR, but rewrote all of the connecting material themselves. Betty =========================================================================== Betty Clay, .......killer!pollux!bjc SYSOP/CompuServe AmigaForum CIS: 76702,337 ===========================================================================
bjc%pollux.uucp%CERNVAX.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (11/29/88)
>In article #27042, Hal G. Meeks of NCSU Computing Center >(hgm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu writes: Here's a something I pulled off a local board recently. I can't guarantee it's accuracy. All misspellings are as they appeared originally. > Amiga system routine (very long article deleted) >Amiga system test is a complicated set of routines which it must go through >before you can do any work on it. During the system test the Amiga is >This article was first authored by Roy Frisque and published on the >newsletter Scanlines. Roy obtain his information from the Amiga Transactor, >which is a great resource for the Amiga. > AMIGA EXCHANGE > 24 HRS, 3/12/24 BAUD > 213-325-1796 > SysOp: Robert Takahashi This article has appeared on our local BBS, also - and was even uploaded to CompuServe recently. The information was taken from an article I did for the TRANSACTOR around the end of 1986. I was not on Usenet at the time, but a friend was recording the messages on disk, and I gleaned much of the material about the colors from the discussions here. I especially remember input from Hans Hansen, to whom I should have given credit in the article. I apologize. The information about the keyboard startup routines was buried in very small print in the back of the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual, and I had not seen that anywhere else. I'm reasonably sure that the information is correct, else I would not have submitted it to TRANSACTOR. I cannot, however, take credit for the spelling, which I believe to belong to Roy and to Robert. They used the information from TRANSACTOR, but rewrote all of the connecting material themselves. Betty =========================================================================== Betty Clay, .......killer!pollux!bjc SYSOP/CompuServe AmigaForum CIS: 76702,337 ===========================================================================