kempf@tci.bell-atl.com (Cory Kempf) (01/06/90)
gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: >You must be joking. Have you ever programmed the Mac for multiple >monitors? I have. > It's no cakewalk. What?? It's not that difficult. Took longer to install a second monitor to test it with. > I am just beginning to write code for >multiple monitors, and it seems to be the same old stupid story: >1. Check if you have multiple monitors. Why on earth would you care?? >2. If so, then invoke all sorts of special-case software to deal with >them (like the size a window may zoom, and the way you paint the >desktop). -BZZZZT!- Sorry, try again. Apple has a rather simple interface that allows multiple monitors without all this pain. I recently wrote the upgrade to a terminal package. One of the features for this upgrade was to allow the terminal window to move (no flames -- I did not write the original). Part of making it move included making it work correctly with multiple monitors. In the end, there were NO SPECIAL CASES FOR MULTIPLE MONITORS. (There was some special case software involved. I wanted the keyboard lights to work. The Mac Plus and the Standard Keyboard don't have lights. Thus my one special case.) +C -- Cory Kempf Technology Concepts phone: (508) 443-7311 x341 uucp: {anywhere}!uunet!tci!kempf, kempf@tci.bell-atl.com DISCLAIMER: TCI is not responsible for my opinions, nor I for theirs
folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (01/07/90)
> >> I am just beginning to write code for >>multiple monitors, and it seems to be the same old stupid story: > >>1. Check if you have multiple monitors. > >Why on earth would you care?? The Following is Speculation by a Beginning Mac Programmer: I think I might know what's going on here. In general, any application ever written for a Mac (that followed IM guidelines) will work transparently on multiple monitors--or so I assume. HOWEVER, the keyword is "transparently". Say, for example, you wanted to write a debugger that popped up on the second monitor. Then you wold obviously have to test for its existence and its location as a part of the virtual desktop. Another example would be, say, an After Dark (a screen blanker) routine. You might want each screen to have its own copy of the animation going at once, not one huge, screen-spanning animation. I believe that all applications start up in the designated "main" monitor, and if you wanted things to come up on a second monitor, you have to do something about it. Is this correct? -- Wayne Folta (folta@cs.umd.edu 128.8.128.8)