Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

3624.0. "4-plane color problem" by ESRAD::LUND (Jennifer Lund) Fri Nov 09 1990 13:54

    PROBLEM #1
    We are unable to get our application to allocate any color cells on a
    4-plane machine.  The application runs fine on 8-planes.
    
    We have tried AllocColor and AllocColorCells, but these seem to work
    only on the read-only cells pre-defined in the standard color map.
    
    I understand that if all 14 available colors have been assigned by 
    other applications, that our application will need to "just make do"
    with the colors that were loaded at boot-time or allocated in the
    meantime (right?).  But we haven't been able to change any colors at
    any time.
    
    o  Is there something tricky about allocating colors on a 4-plane
       system?  
    
    o  Is there a way to change the colors on a 4-plane system without
       resorting to decwindows startup?
    
    
    A PROBLEM IN COPING WITH PROBLEM #1:
    If no color on the machine is close to the color we need, it seems that
    the machine returns either black or white, which means we run the risk
    of having our text-in-boxes come up black-on-black or white-on-white.  
    
    o  Is there a way to insure this won't happen?
    
    
    Thanks,
    Jennifer

I have seen this on the 4-plave VS2000's in my cluster. Problems occur in the
following circumstances :

1) Login to remote system which runs ALL-IN-1, enter ALL-IN-1 and then spawn out
   of ALL-IN-1. When you log out of the subprocess the DECterm you are in is 
   fine but the rest of the screen goes black with other windows having there 
   outlines in very dark blue...The only way to return to normality is to 
   select the 'Use System Defaults' option from the 'Options' menu...This is 
   assuming you can guess correctly where to point with the cursor :-)

2) VTX - run VTX from a DECterm and when you exit out of it the same thing 
   happens to the screen as described in 1).

Simon.