Differences Between FG/DOS and FG/Windows

This section will describe the major differences between the DOS and Windows versions of Fastgraph. For the DOS product, we assume Fastgraph version 5.0 or later. Of course, all Fastgraph for Windows functions differ from their DOS counterparts because they always write to virtual buffers, where Fastgraph's DOS functions can write either to virtual buffers or directly to video memory.

Fastgraph for DOS includes 88 functions not found in Fastgraph for Windows:

fg_allocate()

 fg_alloccms()

 fg_allocems()

 fg_allocxms()
fg_automode()

 fg_bestmode()

 fg_bmpmode()

 fg_button()
fg_capslock()

 fg_chgattr()

 fg_chgtext()

 fg_chipset()
fg_cursor()

 fg_defpages()

 fg_egacheck()

 fg_fadein()
fg_fadeout()

 fg_findpage()

 fg_flicmode()

 fg_fontsize()
fg_freepage()

 fg_getaddr()

 fg_getattr()

 fg_getbanks()
fg_getchar()

 fg_getentry()

 fg_getkey()

 fg_getmode()
fg_getvpage()

 fg_getxjoy()

 fg_getyjoy()

 fg_hush()
fg_hushnext()

 fg_initems()

 fg_initjoy()

 fg_initpm()
fg_initxms()

 fg_intjoy()

 fg_intkey()

 fg_jpegmode()
fg_kbinit()

 fg_kblast()

 fg_kbreset()

 fg_memory()
fg_modename()

 fg_mouse256()

 fg_mousebut()

 fg_mousedcb()
fg_mousefin()

 fg_mousespd()

 fg_music()

 fg_musicb()
fg_numlock()

 fg_palette()

 fg_palettes()

 fg_pan()
fg_pattern()

 fg_pcxmode()

 fg_playing()

 fg_printc()
fg_quiet()

 fg_reset()

 fg_resize()

 fg_resume()
fg_scrlock()

 fg_setattr()

 fg_setbanks()

 fg_setcaps()
fg_setentry()

 fg_setfunc()

 fg_setlines()

 fg_setmode()
fg_setnum()

 fg_setvpage()

 fg_sound()

 fg_sounds()
fg_split()

 fg_suspend()

 fg_svgainit()

 fg_svgastat()
fg_svgaver()

 fg_testmode()

 fg_textc()

 fg_vbcut()
fg_vbtcxfer()

 fg_vgastate()

 fg_waitkey()

 fg_waitvr()

Many of these functions pertain to DOS-specific video capabilities, off-screen video pages, or other features that are not applicable to Windows. We have intentionally omitted GIF file support from both the DOS and Windows versions of Fastgraph because of the Unisys patent fiasco concerning the LZW compression used in GIF files.

The following table lists other differences between Fastgraph for DOS and Fastgraph for Windows:

Fastgraph for Windows

 Fastgraph for DOS
Easier to manage virtual buffers with fg_vballoc() and fg_vbfree().

 Easier to use fg_vbdefine() due to potential memory allocation conflicts.
RGB color components are always between 0 and 255.

 RGB color components are between 0 and 63 for palette-based modes, and between 0 and 255 for direct color modes.
The fg_setdacs() and fg_setrgb() functions modify colors in the active logical palette.

 These functions directly modify the video DAC registers in palette-based video modes.
The fg_getdacs() and fg_getrgb() functions retrieve colors from the active logical palette.

 These functions directly read the video DAC registers in palette-based video modes.
The fg_drect() and fg_drectw() dither matrix size is always 2x4 pixels.

 The dither matrix size depends on the video mode.
Image file display functions can perform color mapping/reduction to avoid conflicts with system colors.

 Color mapping/reduction is not available.
The fg_makepcx() function cannot create 16-color or monochrome PCX files.

 16-color and monochrome PCX files can be created if using a 16-color or monochrome video mode.
The low-level keyboard handler is always enabled.

 The low-level keyboard handler is enabled or disabled with fg_kbinit().
The fg_mouseini() function returns 1 if successful.

 This function returns the number of mouse buttons if successful.
The fg_mousecur() function activates a cursor defined with fg_mouseptr().

 This function defines a text mode mouse cursor.
The fg_mousepos() function returns the mouse cursor position.

 This function returns the mouse cursor position and button status.
The fg_mouseptr() function returns a Windows handle to the new mouse cursor shape.

 This function has no return value.
Internal globals are initialized by fg_vbinit().

 Initialization occurs in fg_setmode().

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copyright 2001 Ted Gruber Software, Inc.