[Oberon] backward compatible

[Charles Angelich]

>From: muller at inf.ethz.ch
>Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 19:04:05 +0200
>To: oberon at inf.ethz.ch
>Cc: muller at inf.ethz.ch
>Subject: Re: [Oberon] ETH N-O Native/Beta directory display
>Reply-To: oberon at inf.ethz.ch
>
>Charles Angelich <cangelich at famvid.com> wrote:
>> 640x480 video display driver:
>> System track = 36 Oberon10.Scn.Fnt chars
>> User track   = 63 Oberon10.Scn.Fnt chars
>
>Since Oberon10 is a proportional font it makes no sense to
>count the number of characters.  Or did you mean Courier10?
>
>> To increase the usefulness of the
>> System.Directory display I have made the following changes.
[...]
>Not a good idea to make non-backward-compatible changes in a 
>low-level module.  

I've changed this code since my original post.  I will need
to go back and review my changes but I think I may have only
changed ONE module now rather than two.

Can you please specify the exact lines of code that you deem
"non-backward compatible".  Use of full space characters
within the Directory procedure would seem to have NO effect
other than to make the display readable and correct an error.

Directory displays are not INSTALLED they are requested by
the user on-the-fly.  There should be no existing older
displays within a previously installed Oberon to "interfere"
with?

>Neither is field padding with a proportional font.

You have ignored the fact that this _does_ actually work!

Columnar alignment is normal in the real world.  The existing 
"\d" display is almost unreadable yet you dismiss this offhand 
even though I included example displays that are properly aligned 
by "counting chars" and padding.

What you are telling me seems more a personal decision rather 
than a decision based upon real world evidence that this will do 
harm to the Oberon code.




Charles Angelich

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