[comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d] The rgl graphics language

ant@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Anthony Murdoch) (11/18/90)

Hi netters,

I have been playing around with this rgl for a couple of hours and frankly,
I'm stumpped.  Has anyone actually managed to get any of the demos to do
anything ?  All I get when I run any of the demos is a little coloured stripe
pattern in the top left hand of the otherwise blank screen.

I tried to compile one of the example sources.  This worked OK, but when I
tried to run the resulting code, you guessed it, the same little pattern on
a blank screen.

The machine was a i486 with an Orchid vga card.  Anyone have any ideas ?

ant

-- 
  V   ant                       "It's great to be young and insane"
 \o/  ant@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au                    - Dream Team
 -O-  Anthony Murdoch           Prentice Computer Centre
 /0\  Phone (07) 3774078        University of Qld

pfratar@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - DCS) (11/20/90)

In article <1990Nov18.072655.16316@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> ant@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Anthony Murdoch) writes:
>Hi netters,
>
[stuff deleted]
>
>I tried to compile one of the example sources.  This worked OK, but when I
>tried to run the resulting code, you guessed it, the same little pattern on
>a blank screen.

All the demos I looked at ran in CGA 640x200x2 mode.  I'm not sure
what other modes it can do.  I think that is probably it.  All thought
the graphics are fast,  I personally am not too impressed with RGL.
It is very old.  The documentation says that a CHANGE statement in the
loop will allow a "BREAK" to be caught, but it doesn't for me. (I hate
pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL to stop a program).

I think if it were updated a bit, it would be pretty good, but the
present situation is disappointing.

>The machine was a i486 with an Orchid vga card.  Anyone have any ideas ?
>

Video card isn't completely compatible??  Bad BIOS??  The docs say
that the RGL compiler produces 8086 machine language routines to do
the graphics and many assumptions are made about the type of hardware
you are using (read: It thinks PC/XT only.  It is very old after all).
Maybe your video is mapped somewhere different than where it expects??

....Paul
-- 
         Paul "vi joe" Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services                      University of Waterloo  Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2L-3G1
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