[Coco] Re: I need MESS help

[Nathan Woods]

Roger Taylor writes: 

> M.E.S.S. video window that shows your computer running, but the app that 
> is supposed to manage configuration and software images, etc.  I've dealt 
> with similar problems with checkmarks and settings not being remembered.  
> Some would call these bugs.  I call it incomplete work by the interface 
> app programmer.

When you find these bugs, _please_ report them to bugzilla.mess.org.  Bugs 
cannot be fixed when they go unreported. 

> For now, anyway.  The problem I had when trying out the Direct3D mode was 
> that the CoCo's video appeared to be textured, or composed of tiny 
> circles.  I don't think the Direct3D mode is meant to help 2-D systems.

Actually it doesn't even help 3-D systems.  It is nothing more than an 
optimization for some video cards that are faster when blitting with D3D 
than DirectDraw. 

> If I wrote the M.E.S.S. interface app that houses the CoCo's video plane, 
> I would look for the PC's mouse cursor to be within the window's client 
> area (where the CoCo video fits), and if it's there, then change the 
> cursor a little to let the user know the mouse coordinates are being 
> translated into the "signals" that the emulated CoCo can read.  Makes 
> sense.  The scroll-lock thing in M.E.S.S. is a major pain.  :)

The big problem with this approach is that it is incompatible with 100% of 
the software out there.  The question that I have to answer is "what goes in 
that pair of six bit values outputted by the ADC".  Software running on the 
CoCo queries the result and based on the result does interesting things.  
Emulators like VMware have a similar "mouse locking system" but they provide 
a Windows plugin that allows VMware to "shortcut" the mouse.  However, the 
makers of that VMware have that luxury because they can write such a 
component.