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On Monday 23 August 2004 13:48, Chris wrote:
> In help.txt, there's this note in determining the cause of a problem:
> "I'm afraid your only option is to get a better VESA driver, either by
> hassling the manufacturer to fix their bugs, buying Display Doctor, or
> writing a FreeBE/AF driver for your card (see
> http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/freebe/)."
> The good news is that SciTech Software has released Display Doctor (both
> DOS and Windows versions) for free. There's a place on their website
> where they provide you with the download and a serial key to register
> with. They don't, however, provide support for the products anymore.
>
> Near the end of help.txt here it has the example, it has the "user"
> detailing his system: "I'm using Allegro 3.0 with djgpp 2.02 (gcc
> version 2.8.1) on a p166, running under win95 and using the builtin VESA
> 2.0 driver, which the vesainfo program describes as "Matrox Graphics
> Inc."" Granted it's not so much important, but do you think we could up
> those version numbers and specs a bit? ;)
How about the attached patch? It attempts to remove as much DOS-specific
items from the general information and be more platform neutral.
I tried boosting the system specs to Allegro 4.0 and what I think is a
current lower end machine, but I don't know that for sure.
Evert
Index: docs/src/help._tx
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/alleg/allegro/docs/src/help._tx,v
retrieving revision 1.11
diff -u -r1.11 help._tx
--- docs/src/help._tx 7 Sep 2003 19:11:52 -0000 1.11
+++ docs/src/help._tx 24 Aug 2004 08:50:06 -0000
@@ -64,10 +64,13 @@
If this fixes the trouble, it almost certainly means that your original
VESA driver was broken in some way. I'm not interested in hearing reports
about problems of this type: there is nothing I can do to fix them, so
- I'm afraid your only option is to get a better VESA driver, either by
- hassling the manufacturer to fix their bugs, buying Display Doctor, or
- writing a FreeBE/AF driver for your card (see
- <link>http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/freebe/</a>).
+ I'm afraid your only option is to get a better VESA driver, for instance
+ by downloading Display Doctor. This is now free for download from SciTech's
+ website, but there is no longer support for it.
+
+ For Windows graphics modes, you should probably check if DirectX is
+ installed properly on your system and if new drivers have been released for
+ your card.
@@ -81,18 +84,19 @@
know not only what programs had trouble, but also which ones worked
correctly, if any).
- If the problem is related to DOS graphics modes, you should also post the
- output from running the afinfo and vesainfo programs (the short version
- is enough unless you are explicitly asked to add the -v switch: all that
- extra data isn't usually needed). Try running the test.exe program with
- various Allegro drivers (any native drivers that you think might work
- with your card, VESA 2.0, and the VESA 1.x driver), and in various video
+ Try running the test.exe program with various display drivers (any native
+ drivers that you think might work with your card), and in various video
modes, and report exactly what modes and color depths cause problems. If
- you are able to use any SVGA resolutions at all, run test.exe with the
+ you are able to use any high resolutions at all, run test.exe with the
Autodetect option and report the entire text that it displays in the
middle of the screen.
- If the problem is related to the DOS sound system, try using the setup
+ If the problem is related to DOS graphics modes, you should also post the
+ output from running the afinfo and vesainfo programs (the short version
+ is enough unless you are explicitly asked to add the -v switch: all that
+ extra data isn't usually needed).
+
+ If the problem is related to the sound system, try using the setup
program to manually configure your card. You may need to manually enter
the hardware parameters, and if it is an SB clone card, try selecting
some earlier breed of SB card than whatever it is autodetecting (SB Pro,
@@ -106,6 +110,7 @@
@heading
Part 3 - when your program crashes
+@hnode crashes under DOS
When a djgpp program crashes, you will usually get a stack traceback
looking something like:
<textblock>
@@ -250,11 +255,14 @@
yourself unto the mercies of the net, in hopes of finding some kind of
wise man, seer, or oracle that holds an answer for your question...
- The best place to ask is the Allegro mailing list: see readme.txt for
- details. Please remember that this is an Allegro-specific list, though.
- Problems relating to the C language or djgpp compiler belong in other
- forums (comp.lang.c and comp.os.msdos.djgpp respectively).
-
+ The best places to ask are the Allegro mailing list (see readme.txt for
+ details) and the Allegro.cc forums. Please remember that the mailing list
+ is an Allegro-specific list. Problems relating to the C language or djgpp
+ compiler belong in other forums (comp.lang.c and comp.os.msdos.djgpp
+ respectively). The Allegro.cc forums can be found at
+ <link>http://www.allegro.cc/</a>. You can usually ask any question related
+ to Allegro here.
+
Both the Allegro and djgpp mailing lists are archived, and can be
searched via their respective homepages. It is very likely that you will
be able to find a solution to your problem by looking through the answers
@@ -326,8 +334,9 @@
you should upload the program and data to a website and then just post
that URL in your message.
- You should say what gcc command line you used to build the program, and
- this should include the -Wall switch.
+ You should say what compiler options you used to build the program. These
+ should include extra warnings. If you use gcc, post the list of compiler
+ switches you used.
Describe what you intended this program to do (it may not be instantly
obvious to other people), and also what it really does when you run it.
@@ -342,7 +351,7 @@
importantly a brief machine description, information about any relevant
drivers, and your Allegro version (please don't just say "WIP", but give
the exact date if you are using anything other than an official numbered
- release),
+ release).
@@ -354,10 +363,9 @@
<textblock>
I'm having some trouble using the hicolor video modes in my program,
- although they work fine with the Allegro tests. I'm using Allegro 3.0
- with djgpp 2.02 (gcc version 2.8.1) on a p166, running under win95 and
- using the builtin VESA 2.0 driver, which the vesainfo program describes
- as "Matrox Graphics Inc.".
+ although they work fine with the Allegro tests. I'm using Allegro 4.0
+ with MinGW 3.1.0 (gcc version 3.3.1) on a Pentium 1.2GHz, running under
+ Windows 2000 and an ATi Radeon 7000 videocard.
This program is supposed to select a 640x480 16 bit resolution, draw a
blue rectangle near the top left corner of the screen, and then wait for