Re: Display colors, hardware issues

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Patricia M Godfrey  Wed, 16
Feb 2005 13:00:49 -0500

Patricia:

> Obviously, CRTs don't like your messing with colors. What I'm
> wondering is if I should run into the same problems if I
> (finally; been meaning to do it for years) created my own dsp
> file?

A few points that may help clear this up:

1) CRT vs. LCD is a non-issue. You can absolutely change colors on
a CRT display!

2) MoDe settings MUST be established (or changed) by loading a
PRinter file. You cannot change an individual MoDe assignment from
the CMline -- as you learned.

3) SETTINGS.DFL, .PRN files and .DSP files are all PRinter files.
They all have the ;PR; identifier at the top of the file. And they
each have equal ability to effect|affect MoDe settings.

The thing about PRinter files is that, unlike U2 and other Help
files, you can load more than one. They are loaded "additively",
that is, values in later-loaded files are added to the ones already
in memory. However -- this is the catch -- if the values in any two
PRinter files clash, the last-loaded values prevail.

Therefore, it's imperative to confine your color MoDe settings to a
single PRinter file (use SETTINGS.DFL), and make sure that any
PRinter file loaded after SETTINGS.DFL contains no inconsistent MoDe
settings. You do NOT need a separate DSP file.

There has got to be a extra MD NM setting in your current setup!
Clearly the MD NM=240 line in SETTINGS.DFL is being overwritten by a
different MD NM setting in another PRinter file, loaded farther down
in STARTUP.INT. Here is the dead giveaway:

> On one [machine], the white screen flashes briefly on loading.

Let me guess: your slowest machine? If it's slow enough, you'll see
a transient paper-white screen -- until the PRinter file with the
new MD NM setting is loaded. If you're not loading a DSP file, the
inconsistent setting must be in PRN.

Here's what you need to do: CAll your PRN file and SEarch for
"MD NM=" immediately followed by a number (not by "(*)"). When --
not if, he said confidently -- you find that numeric value, disable
the line with semicolons, like this:

;;MD NM=[whatever]

STore and reload your PRN file (issue your normal SETP command).

That should do it.

By the way, once you get your paper-white background, you may need
to adjust defaults L1 (second value), L2 (second and third values)
and L3 (first value) to get the same background color in the command
header (the top three lines of the display). Choose appropriate
values from the HELP COLOR chart. Again, set these in SETTINGS.DFL
and eliminate any inconsistent settings in other PRinter files.

But first things first: Let us know if you can nail down that
errant MD NM setting! It's floating around somewhere in your PRN
file.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx