[comp.sys.atari.st.tech] VDI graphics text and GDOS

swklassen@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Steven W. Klassen) (12/01/90)

I am having problems with the use of the v_gtext() call when GDOS
is installed.  Specifically, I have typed in the example program
for this function as given in the MWC manual and it did not draw
anything.  After ruling out most other causes I decided to remove
G+Plus from my system and reboot.  The program then worked fine.  I
then installed GDOS (the Atari version, not the Codehead version)
and I got the same problem (hence it doesn't seem to be a G+Plus
compatability problem).

Further tests showed that with no GDOS installed, the call to
start the VDI workstation (the one for the screen), returns lots
of reasonable values in the work_out[57] vector.  With GDOS or
G+Plus installed this vector comes back as all 0s except for
work_out[0] and work_out[1] (the screen dimensions) which are
correct.

Is this a standard problem?

Can someone tell me what the correct means of writing text
(preferably half-height text) into a desktop window?

(The reason is that I am trying to write a csh like CLI which
can be run as a desk accessory.  My goal is to be able to
access my development environment directly from the desktop,
without having to enter msh.  I will need a number of utilities
to do this properly, but most of them require writing text
in windows.)

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

(PS. I will summarize all the responses I got about installing
another drive into my Megafile 60 in a few days.)

--

						Steven W. Klassen
						University of Waterloo