Re: Mac Family Ref Manual

> On Nov 28, 4:52 pm, "Tim Stark" <fswo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > I was looking for Mac II video specs but it refers to see designing
> > cards reference manuals.  Does that manual provides complete
> > information about Mac II video programming?

No such manual was ever produced.  The 'Inside Mac' series stops with
volume V, which was a description of all that was new at the time of the
Mac II, including the slot manager.  The best hardware do***entation that
came out after that as all in the form of notes and never published in a
proper book.

> > I now have a question for you about beyond Mac II series.  How about
> > Centris, and Quanda, etc?  Does Centris and Quanda uses same Mac II
> > address mapping?
> >
> > How about Performa on both m68k, and ppc processors?  etc....

No no no no no and no.  By the time of the Macintosh IIfx, Apple had
already developed the idea of System calls you could use to find out where
the video was mapped to memory.  By the time of the Quadras it was no
longer possible to rely on memory-mapped video: you had to use system
calls to write to video unless you fancied learning how each separate
video card worked, and if you did that you found they all worked
differently.

Ooooh.  CLUT.  A/ROSE.  NewGWorld.  SLOTIRQ.  Nasty.

Here's a typical piece of advice that you should depend on System calls
and not try to talk directly to hardware:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19276

You can find the really old hardware TechNotes here:

http://developer.apple.com/technicalnotes/LegacyTechnologies/idxHardwareDri
vers-date.html

which includes the sort of thing you're asking about, but isn't actually
going to give you useful numbers or methods

Simon.
-- 
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk