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Comet Tip
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Comet
Screen Colors
This
tip presents information about Comet screen colors and the CWCOLOR dialog in
Comet98 and Comet2000.
Comet
was designed to use a set of 16 screen colors that correspond to the original
16 colors of the IBM CGA display adapter. In order to maintain compatibility
with existing applications, Comet98 and Comet2000 were designed to use the same
color scheme with some variation.
Depending
on your system settings, Windows can display many colors of varying depths. The
minimum color depth is 16 (4 bits) and the maximum is in the millions. Most
systems come with a default color depth set to 256 (8 bits). This provides an
adequate palette of colors for most typical business applications.
Windows
provides a set of “system colors” which are mapped by the user to a system
palette corresponding to the aforementioned adapter settings. These colors
include (but are not limited to) captions, menus, dialogs, and text (foreground
and background).
The
CWCOLOR dialog allows the user to specify how Comet should use the available
colors to display QCRT text. The dialog consists of three sections:
- The Palette
section allows the user to choose one of four Comet palettes with which
the 16 basic colors will be mapped.
- The Options
section presents the user with the options that pertain to the selected
Comet palette.
- The Colors
section shows the user the current colors configured from the selected
Comet palette.
To
activate the CWCOLOR dialog, run CWCOLOR from the READY prompt. The Comet Color
Palette will be displayed.
The
following sections explain the Palettes, Options, and Colors
settings in this dialog.
Palettes
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Standard
Colors This
palette is the default chosen when Comet is first installed. It provides a
color set that is consistent with the general appearance of Windows
applications: soft, low contrast, pastel-like colors. The
individual colors for this palette cannot be modified, however, the entire
palette can be copied from the custom palette below by clicking the “<<
Custom” button. |
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Window
Colors This
palette consists of three colors: foreground, background, and text. The
colors used here come from the “system colors” mentioned above. The
Windows text color is used to represent all QCRT characters. The
Windows background color is used to represent the field portion of QCRT
foreground text. An
algorithm is used to derive the field color for QCRT background text. If the
user changes the system colors (Display Properties), the changes will be
reflected in the Comet display. |
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DOS
Colors This
palette consists of the 16 original DOS (CGA) colors. |
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Custom
Colors This
palette allows the user to map any color from the system palette to any
position in the Comet palette. This
palette can be copied from the “standard colors” palette by clicking the
“<< Standard” button. This setting is most useful as a tool to design a
replacement “Standard Colors.” |
Options
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Ignore
CFIG Color Set This
option ignores the five configured colors and reduces the Comet palette to
two basic color combinations: foreground field and background field combined
with a text color. Specific
color changes, made using the (Change Color) or (Change Colors) mnemonics in Internet
Basic, will continue to work, selecting the appropriate color(s) from the
Standard Palette. This
option applies to the Standard Palette only. The
three colors can be chosen from any of the colors available from the system
palette. By clicking on a color button, you can choose from the system
palette the color that will represent the associated QCRT color.
The
"Define Custom Colors>>" button allows you to choose from any
color available from the system palette. Note: On systems with 256 or fewer
colors or a lower resolution monitor, many custom colors are created by
dithering, a method of combining colors to achieve a different color.
Depending on the chosen color, this technique may cause some text to be
unreadable. |
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Ignore
Color Set Change This
option causes Comet to completely ignore the Internet Basic (Change Colors)
mnemonic. The singular (Change Color) mnemonic will continue to work. |
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Display
Entry Rectangle This
option provides a “focus” indicator at the cursor location by drawing a thin
broken line around the entry field. |
Behind the
Scenes
The
settings obtained from the CWCOLOR dialog are stored in the COSW.INI file
located in the Windows folder. The layout is as follows:
[Colors]
;=================================================================
; Palette layout:
;
; Pal_0=DOS Colors
(map to DOS colors)
; Pal_1=Standard
Colors (provided by Signature)
; Pal_2=Custom
Colors (can be modified in program)
;
; F=Foreground group
of 16 colors
; B=Background group
of 16 colors
;
; _LO=Lower 8
entries of a 16 color group
; _HI=Upper 8
entries of a 16 color group
;
; Example:
Palette_0F_LO
; DOS Palette
; Foreground group
; Lower 8 entries
;
; CUSTOM_SET=16
additional custom colors that can be used
; with the 48 standard colors to
define a palette.
;=================================================================
Active=2
Pal_2F_LO=<8
entries>
Pal_2F_HI=<8
entries>
Pal_1F_LO=<8
entries>
Pal_1F_HI=<8
entries>
Pal_1X_LO=<8
entries>
Pal_1X_HI=<8
entries>
Pal_0F_LO=<8
entries>
Pal_0F_HI=<8
entries>
CUSTOM_SET_LO=<8
entries>
CUSTOM_SET_HI=<8
entries>
Standard=0xf0fbff,
0xc0c0c0, 0x0
IgnoreCFIGColors=0
IgnorePROGColors=0
BkgndDiff=30
UseEntryRect=1
Updated on September 10, 2001.