OpenEuphoria

Re: Rob: Reply about OW 1.4 full-screen issue

• Posted by Robert Craig <rds at RapidEuphoria.com> Feb 22, 2006
• 508 views

Vincent wrote:
> I built a small "Hello World" program in C and compiled using the same
> compiler
> and linker options as EMAKE. I took out one thing from OBJFILES.
> 
> FILE C:\EUPHORIA\bin\ec.lib
> 
> I compiled it and the program ran in windowed mode. So that makes me think
> that
> there is something in "ec.lib" that is causing Open Watcom to start
> full-screen?

Thanks.

I'm not saying that all DOS C programs compiled by OW1.4 will
go to full screen.

I identified about 5 different points during the interpreter
start-up and/or final cleanup which each force it to full screen. 
If I remove all of them, it won't go to full screen. The trouble is, 
I can't remove them all. They all do something useful, if not essential.

What do they have in common? They are all calls to the Watcom
graphics library. e.g. _getvideoconfig(), _gettextposition(),
_setactivepage, set_visualpage, _outtext. Most of them will 
eventually be needed by the Euphoria program, even if they 
are somehow removed from the startup. For instance, _outtext
is used when you try to print something on the screen.

Even if this full-screen annoyance were resolved,
the only thing OW1.4 has going for it, is a DOS time()
function that is always fast. With 10.6 the time()
function can also be fast if you call tick_rate().
Most programs couldn't care less if time()
takes a millisecond instead of a microsecond. It normally
isn't used inside performance-critical sections of code.
It's just used to measure elapsed time, for benchmarking
or something. 

The other advantage, I suppose, is the warm and fuzzy 
feeling of being up to date with the latest version of Watcom.
I've established that I can easily have that feeling.
I just have to type two commands:
   move watcom watcom10.6
   move openwatcom watcom

Thanks for looking into this issue.
I'm not worried about it anymore.
10.6 works fine. 
I'll investigate OW1.5 whenever it comes out.

Regards,
   Rob Craig
   Rapid Deployment Software
   http://www.RapidEuphoria.com