ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) (09/04/90)
I hadn't noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but there's an interesting little fudge with the drop shadows on the standard document windows on machines with the 256K colour ROM (Mac II, IIx, IIcx and SE/30). Namely, the top and left edges of the shadow don't start one pixel down and right, respectively, from the window edge (the way they do on the black-and-white machines); they start right at the edge of the window. I was told that this was done to avoid a complicated-shaped window structure region, which would have slowed down window updates. This fudge is undone in the 512K ROM; I guess Apple feels the IIci and IIfx are fast enough to handle the extra detail. Also, I noticed that, under System 7.0a9, my Mac II displays the drop shadow the "way it should"! Either Apple have some new, faster, code, or they've decided that the speed gain isn't worth the compromise to the design of the user interface... Lawrence D'Oliveiro fone: +64-71-562-889 Computer Services Dept fax: +64-71-384-066 University of Waikato electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz Hamilton, New Zealand 37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00 NZ, 1877: "As it was Sunday, all the shops were closed, and we had to prove we were bona fide travellers before they would give us lunch at the hotel."
tecot@momenta (Ed Tecot) (09/05/90)
ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes: >I hadn't noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but there's >an interesting little fudge with the drop shadows on the standard document >windows on machines with the 256K colour ROM (Mac II, IIx, IIcx and SE/30). >... >I was told that this was done to avoid a complicated-shaped window >structure region, which would have slowed down window updates. That's right, it was painfully slow without it. >This fudge is undone in the 512K ROM; I guess Apple feels the IIci >and IIfx are fast enough to handle the extra detail. > >Also, I noticed that, under System 7.0a9, my Mac II displays the >drop shadow the "way it should"! Either Apple have some new, faster, >code, or they've decided that the speed gain isn't worth the >compromise to the design of the user interface... Both reasons are correct. 32 bit QuickDraw, which is standard on the IIci and IIfx, as well as System 7.0, include performance enhancements which made it possible to go back to the old drop shadow. _emt
murat@farcomp.UUCP (Murat Konar) (09/08/90)
In article <1990Sep4.232909.9756@momenta> tecot@momenta (Ed Tecot) writes: >ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes: >>I hadn't noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but there's >>an interesting little fudge with the drop shadows on the standard document >>windows on machines with the 256K colour ROM (Mac II, IIx, IIcx and SE/30). >>... >>I was told that this was done to avoid a complicated-shaped window >>structure region, which would have slowed down window updates. > >That's right, it was painfully slow without it. I wrote a WDEF replacement INIT that has the proper shadows and noticed no speed differential on my Mac II with or without 32 bit Quickdraw. I donUt think it was the introduction of 32 bit Quickdraw that changed Apple's mind about window shadows but the incorporation of Andy Hertzfeld's QuickerGraph code into the standard system release back in late T87 (I think). This little marvel does significantly speed up Quickdraw operations. Please note that QuickerGraph code has already been included in the standard system releases from Apple since System 5. -- ____________________________________________________________________ Have a day. :^| Murat N. Konar murat@farcomp.UUCP -or- farcomp!murat@apple.com