Re: [AD] modernizing the examples

[Peter Wang <novalazy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2007-07-26, Matthew Leverton <meffer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> One thing that bugs me with all the Allegro examples is they set some
> primitive graphics mode like 320x200x8. Under Vista that mode cannot
> necessarily even be set, which causes Allegro to cycle through drivers
> until it finds a Windowed mode that it works with. This can take an
> upward of 10 seconds to complete, and often the display is broken (it
> won't update unless you move the window around) due to some sort of
> bug.
> 
> Some of those problems are, at the least, Vista-specific, and some
> might even be due to Vista bugs. But surely nobody really wants to see
> 320x200 full screen demos under Windows, OS X or Linux...

Right.

> So I propose that the examples are all converted to use
> GFX_AUTODETECT_WINDOWED instead of GFX_AUTODETECT and use a minimum of
> 640x480. Also, I don't see why DOS cannot just set a full screen mode
> even when a windowed one is requested.

I think GFX_AUTODETECT_WINDOWED should retain its meaning as the
opposite of GFX_AUTODETECT_FULLSCREEN.

> (And if people object to that,
> a GFX_DESKTOP magic driver could be made that gives precedence to
> windowed drivers.)

Good idea.  I'd like for it to be named GFX_AUTODETECT_something,
e.g. GFX_AUTODETECT_PREFER_WINDOWED, although it's slightly long.

> I can make the changes if there is no opposition.
> 
> Also, some of the examples (eg: ex12bit) have outlived their
> usefulness, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see them removed
> completely.

Agreed.

Peter