Re: [AD] [TODO] graphics mode selector

["Eric Botcazou" <ebotcazou@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> that's more like it. some elaboration explaining my current proposal
> follows:
> [...]

I agree to the guidelines.

> we still need them as not all drivers support gfx_get_mode_list(). a way
> to select resolution and color-depth but leaving the job of choosing a
> capable gfx driver to allegro.

Actually I find the whole gfx mode selector / setup system a little lame:
- on one hand, is the gfx mode selector really useful for real-world game
programming ? I don't think any game can properly support every resolution
and every color depth listed in the selector, even though they were
retrieved by get_gfx_mode_list(). Most likely the supported resolutions are
2 or 3, not much more, in 2 or 3 color depths. Therefore programmers build
their own gfx mode selector instead of using Allegro's built-in one (and I
don't think its current look 'n' feel is a strong argument in favor of a
more widespread use).
- on the other hand, the setup program doesn't allow to select the gfx
driver. Why ? Because this choice is tied to the resolution/color depth
combination ? Ok, but we have now the get_gfx_mode_list() method and we can
provide the user with the list of supported resolution/color depth
combinations so that he can make his choice accordingly. Moreover, we could
add a little mechanism in order for the programmer to restrict this list to
the combinations supported in its game.

The main idea is to make a full-featured setup program that can be bundled
with (or included within) games and really serves as a central configuration
tool that communicates with the game through the allegro.cfg file. We could
make it a little more nice-looking (switching to 640x480 on platforms that
support it for example).

---
Eric Botcazou
ebotcazou@xxxxxxxxxx