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Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

Title:	DECWINDOWS 26-JAN-89 to 29-NOV-90
Notice:	See 1639.0 for VMS V5.3 kit; 2043.0 for 5.4 IFT kit
Moderator:	STAR::VATNE

Created:	Mon Oct 30 1989
Last Modified:	Mon Dec 31 1990
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3726
Total number of notes:	19516

1121.0. "Color or Monochrome station" by HPSTEK::JBATES (John D. Bates) Mon Jul 17 1989 15:54

	I have a situation where I need to be able to check and see if 
	the station I am on is color or monochrome.

	The method I tried was getting the default visual and looking at the 
	class field. This worked for a single plane monochrome and an 8 plane
	color but when I tried it on a 4 plane monochrome it told me that it 
	was color.

	Is there a way to correctly discover what type of system you have?

					John

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1121.1		NYMPH::ZACHWIEJA	XUIS - coming to a theatre near you	`Mon Jul 17 1989 16:29`	18
	There are two things that make a color workstation a color workstation. The first is the multi-plane graphics board. The second is a color monitor. The drivers look at the graphics board, and the server probably does a qio to the driver to query the visual type. Unfortunately the driver has no notion of the monitor that you have attached at the other end of the cable. If you but a color monitor, you have color, if you put a black and white monitor out there, you have color. This is true for the VCB02. I am not really sure how the Firefox board behaves. Unless the graphics board can talk to the monitor there is no way to tell the difference. _sjz.
1121.2		WSINT::MCLEMAN	There can only be but one...	`Mon Jul 17 1989 16:42`	9
	That is why you have to manually instruct the server that it is a grey scale machine. Jeff BTW-- FireFox is always a color machine. There isn't a mono monitor with the proper timing that will hook to it.
1121.3	A possible solution ??	HPSTEK::JBATES	John D. Bates	`Mon Jul 17 1989 16:55`	10
	RE: .1 & .2 Thanks for the quick response and explanation. RE: .2 You mentioned manually instructing the server that it is a grey scale machine. How do you do that? John
1121.4		WSINT::MCLEMAN	There can only be but one...	`Mon Jul 17 1989 19:20`	19
	on the decwindows implementation, you define a symbol in DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP.COM, which resides in SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR], as follows: $DECW$COLOR == "FALSE" This will invoke the logic: If color_frame_buffer exists and DECW$COLOR equals false then system is grey scale else system is a color system. Jeff (Yes, I know, over-simplified)
1121.5	Check logicals in DECW$SERVERn_TABLE	AIRBAG::SWATKO	Brother, can 'ya spare a Meg?	`Tue Jul 18 1989 15:01`	6
	One way to tell for sure (correct me if I'm wrong) is to check the logical name DECW$COLOR or DECW$BITONAL in the DECW$SERVERn_TABLE (where n = server number, usually 0). You can also get other useful info such as DECW$MONITOR_DENSITY, etc... Keep in mind that this will work only for VMS DECwindows.
1121.6		PSW::WINALSKI	Careful with that VAX, Eugene	`Wed Jul 19 1989 15:41`	8
	RE: .5 If you properly set up the DECW$COLOR symbol as .4 suggests, then examining the available visuals will produce the proper results and there's no need to resort to a VMS-specific solution to the problem. --PSW
1121.7	Always look at the visuals...	DECWIN::FISHER	Burns Fisher 381-1466, ZKO3-4/W23	`Wed Jul 19 1989 15:46`	9
	re .6: Quite correct. The right way to find out whether you have monochrome, gray scale, or color is to look at the visuals. If the visuals do not correctly represent what the hardware is then something is set up wrong. In the VMS case, it would be the symbols in DECW$PRIVATE_SERVER_SETUP. In Ultrix, I think it would be the command line arguments which start up the server. Burns