glmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matt Crowd) (12/17/90)
I was in a Mac shop the other day, and I watched as the guy in the store swapped monitors on the Macs present. I was amazed when the system software appeared to automatically open the screen to the correct screen size! Being used to Amigas, were you have to set preferences to your monitor type, I am wondering how the machine knows what monitor is attached. How is this done, or was I just blind?? -- Matt Crowd Amiga Man Email Address glmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (12/17/90)
In article <1990Dec17.101821.7517@marlin.jcu.edu.au> glmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matt Crowd) writes: >I was in a Mac shop the other day, and I watched as the guy in the >store swapped monitors on the Macs present. I was amazed when the >system software appeared to automatically open the screen to the >correct screen size! Being used to Amigas, were you have to set >preferences to your monitor type, I am wondering how the machine >knows what monitor is attached. How is this done, or was I just >blind?? 1) Sleight of hand 2) The guy switched video cards too 3) The card had 'mode sense' hardware, and either the monitor or the cable had a few diodes in it telling the card what size it was. -- Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.
barr@Apple.COM (Ron Barr) (12/18/90)
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes: >In article <1990Dec17.101821.7517@marlin.jcu.edu.au> glmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matt Crowd) writes: >>I was in a Mac shop the other day, and I watched as the guy in the >>store swapped monitors on the Macs present. I was amazed when the >>system software appeared to automatically open the screen to the >>correct screen size! Being used to Amigas, were you have to set >>preferences to your monitor type, I am wondering how the machine >>knows what monitor is attached. How is this done, or was I just >>blind?? >1) Sleight of hand >2) The guy switched video cards too >3) The card had 'mode sense' hardware, and either the monitor or the cable had >a few diodes in it telling the card what size it was. Actually, all Mac II's sold today and all Apple video cards detect the size of the monitor from the signals on the cable and configure themselves accordingly. Pretty neat, huh? Ron