Re: [cc65] TGI palettes (was: TGI colors revisited)

Hi Uz,

>> There is another option, the one used by earlier X windows functions. In those,
>> you can "allocate" a new color, and the driver returns the best approximation
>> of that color.

> I have to admit that I didn't like this idea in the first place. But after
> thinking about it for a while, it looks like it has some advantages over the
> palette approach.

Exactly the same experience here.

As pointed out I especially like the idea of the application not
needing to distinguish between "direct colors" and palettes. This is a
significant step towards TGI application portability.

And the implementation in non-palette drivers causes so little
overhead that it is well justified by the portability opportunies.
After all the major overhead seems to stem from the fact that
tgi_setcolor() parameters can't be constants anymore but rather have
to be always variables.

> We can also pass larger values than a byte to tgi_alloccolor, so the argument
> could actually contain RGB values on platforms that support it. So an
> application for the Lynx could either use the TGI_COLOR_XXX macros or pass
> encoded R/G/B values to the tgi_alloccolor function. It won't be portable any
> more, but can fully support all colors.

Yes, I thought that too. Designing the tgi_alloccolor() parameter
carefully allows for a "smooth transition" from the "very portable"
macros to the "less portable" RGB values. I say less portable because
I understand that certain Atari modes allow to choose from 128 colors.
This sounds more like RGB values than named colors...

> One drawback is that existing programs need additional code and must be
> converted, since the TGI_COLOR_XXX macros may no longer be passed to
> tgi_setcolor.

I volunteer to adjust the TGI demo.

The TGI programs in the user contribution area don't use any colors at
all (anymore) - in other words they never call tgi_setcolor(). Why?
Because today color usage is so inconsistent accross TGI drivers that
only black&white TGI programs are portable. With the color allocation
approach it would become feasable to add some color (again) to the
programs - which I volunteer to do.

> I would refrain from adding things like tgi_darken/lightencolor, because color
> effects won't look good when made portable anyway.

Full ACK.

Again my perspective may be (too) narrow, but today any TGI
application that wants to go beyond black&white on the C64 _NEEDS_ to
use palettes! And without any additional precautions this palette
usage makes the application not work as intended anymore on most other
TGI drivers. I believe that the color allocation approach helps to
improve this situation.

Regards,
Oliver
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