20x30, 40x15, 20x15 text mode

theelkmechanic · Post by **theelkmechanic** » Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:48 am

I like the idea of 80x30 as the default, although the squished 80x60 letters remind me of my early career writing DataFlex code in Brief. (80x30 looks even better using an 8x16 font, like in a certain Z-machine that shall remain nameless. ?)

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:43 pm

On 4/7/2022 at 10:48 PM, theelkmechanic said:

I like the idea of 80x30 as the default, although the squished 80x60 letters remind me of my early career writing DataFlex code in Brief. (80x30 looks even better using an 8x16 font, like in a certain Z-machine that shall remain nameless. ?)

The X16 default mode is very Brief-like in appearance. Writing BASIC code in Brief just feels wrong!

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Fri Apr 08, 2022 4:41 pm

Different people - different views.

If you ask me, I like 80x60 mode as default. Looks nostalgic, which is important. And honestly, for me, very comfortable.

I like that all these different modes were added. I'm sure they all would be very useful.

mobluse · Post by **mobluse** » Sat Apr 09, 2022 4:43 pm

SCREEN has a new, undocumented side effect in R39: it also changes background color to blue and foreground color to white. This didn't happen before in e.g. R38. R39 behavior breaks compatibility with many of my R38 programs, but I can fix that. I still think it would be better if the colors were preserved as before, because then you can test different screen modes without having to change the colors.

SCREEN 6 (20x15) works for me in my game Aritm (see Downloads) in R39 to make a more children friendly font, but "Try it now" is still R38.

I could make a version that works in both R38 an R39, by using SCREEN $FF (toggle), but if you RUN it several times it toggles instead of always setting it to 40x30 as it should. When "Try it now" becomes R39 I will probably change it again to SCREEN 3 or SCREEN 6.

theelkmechanic · Post by **theelkmechanic** » Sat Apr 09, 2022 11:02 pm

On 4/8/2022 at 12:41 PM, Cyber said:

Different people - different views.

If you ask me, I like 80x60 mode as default. Looks nostalgic, which is important. And honestly, for me, very comfortable.

I like that all these different modes were added. I'm sure they all would be very useful.

I can see that. While the IBMs had business-y 80x25 with tall fonts, all the 8-bit machines tended to have square characters, so the 80x60 mode does feel like a really big C64. ?