Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 14:10:43 -0500 (EST)
From: john miller <jwvm AT umdsun2 DOT umd DOT umich DOT edu>
To: mail djgpp <djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu>
Subject: A suggestion, a comment on optimization, and a question

One way to read error messages that scroll off the screen is to use some 
utility that provides scroll back. Unfortunately, most such programs are 
very fragile and often cause many more problems than they fix. However, 
the archive SimTel/msdos/screen/aplus400.zip seems to be much better than 
any similar programs (UMHO) that I have tried. It has a great many 
features and is very compatible with most software.

As for optimization, my vote would be to go with the unix standard. After 
all, djgpp has provided us with a great way to port unix software and 
techniques to dos. It would seem logical to maintain this tradition. If 
gcc optimization defaults are going to change, then djgpp should follow 
suit. 

And now for the question: I have a Trident 8900CL card which works fine 
with the proper grd driver specified. The famous and excellent display 
program by Jih-Shin Ho, however, is greatly handicapped using .grd 
drivers because they are limited to 256 colors. Using the default SVGA 
driver (no driver specified in go32)  however, works very well for both 
8, 15, and 16 bits/pixel. However, total garbage results when other 
programs are run that run fine with grd type drivers. I suspect that this 
at least partially a problem with the Trident VESA code but since display 
works, there is some way to overcome this limitation. Thanks in advance 
for suggestions on this problem.

John Miller