[comp.sys.hp] HPUX Magic + X Colors Problem.

dgreen@ucla-cs.UUCP (06/04/87)

In article <1059@vlsi.cs.cmu.edu> gwu@vlsi.cs.cmu.edu (George Wu) writes:

>> The CMU version crashes quite often...
>
>I disagree with you in part. Our version is quite stable. It was used for
>an entire semester by about fifteen grads without any problems.

Actually, the CMU version crashed a lot on HP-UX (a variant of system V), but 
didn't crash at CMU because (as I understand it) they use 4.2 on their 
Hewlett-Packards.  The crashing problems (now gone) were related to system 
incompatibilities.  

X PROBLEM?

The 4 bit-plane version of HPUX pointed out a problem with X.  In order
to get all 4 bit-planes, I had to use (and change) colors 0 and 1, which 
fortunately are writable.  However, if any other windows use non-writable 
colors (xterm for example), Magic will not run.  It requires all 16 colors 
on a 4 bit plane machine.  

X should provide some facility that "hides" or iconizes other windows, saves 
their colors, and frees those colors.  Then programs that require all the 
bitplanes on the monitor can run, even though other windows have allocated 
colors.  When a color-hog program finishes, the hidden windows reappear or
de-iconize.

I'm sure other graphics users want to use all the bitplanes available on their
monitors sometimes.  Seems like X should provide some convenient way to do
that.

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