How do different resolutions (pixel sizes) work? I get that everything memory related (including color mode and depth) could be switched on a raster line.
In theory it should be possible to change the frequency of the video signal mid screen as well, but I have a hard time to imagine switching repeatedly every frame wouldn't have driven the monitors of the time crazy. Even multi-sync monitors needed probably a couple of frames to sync, right?
Maybe its me, but i believe the primary or secondary reason for screen is different screens had different resolutions and color depths, both of which dont really exist these days on any major OS.
It feels like the concept faded with the advent of large VRAM and fast fill rate graphics accelerators. I remember old X Window System workstations supporting multiple concurrent windows with different color depths and modes. The hardware would compose windows from memory during display scan-out, all to save VRAM.
I've been thinking a lot about this. Virtual desktops gets us somewhat close, but not quite. You're right the difference in resolution and colour depth isn't really relevant any more.
What I think made screens feel different was as a grouping mechanism, usually driven by a single application (though in more recent versions of AmigaOS you could open "public screens") that would manage the layout for that screen. You can do that with virtual desktops, but it takes some effort to simulate the behaviour.
I'm slowly iterating on something like that for my wm. I now snapshot the (by default tiling) layout and restore it, letting me "open" and "close" screens/virtual desktops, and re-open the applications on them, so instead of opening a single application that opens a screen, I will open a "project" and it will open a desktop and multiple applications on it whose windows will snap into place. I'm not happy with it yet, but it feels somewhat closer to me to how it felt to use Amiga screens.
I don’t know much about Amiga, but from this article I recognize the Atari 8 bit / ANTIC DLI heritage at play!
How do different resolutions (pixel sizes) work? I get that everything memory related (including color mode and depth) could be switched on a raster line.
In theory it should be possible to change the frequency of the video signal mid screen as well, but I have a hard time to imagine switching repeatedly every frame wouldn't have driven the monitors of the time crazy. Even multi-sync monitors needed probably a couple of frames to sync, right?
Maybe its me, but i believe the primary or secondary reason for screen is different screens had different resolutions and color depths, both of which dont really exist these days on any major OS.
It feels like the concept faded with the advent of large VRAM and fast fill rate graphics accelerators. I remember old X Window System workstations supporting multiple concurrent windows with different color depths and modes. The hardware would compose windows from memory during display scan-out, all to save VRAM.
I've been thinking a lot about this. Virtual desktops gets us somewhat close, but not quite. You're right the difference in resolution and colour depth isn't really relevant any more.
What I think made screens feel different was as a grouping mechanism, usually driven by a single application (though in more recent versions of AmigaOS you could open "public screens") that would manage the layout for that screen. You can do that with virtual desktops, but it takes some effort to simulate the behaviour.
I'm slowly iterating on something like that for my wm. I now snapshot the (by default tiling) layout and restore it, letting me "open" and "close" screens/virtual desktops, and re-open the applications on them, so instead of opening a single application that opens a screen, I will open a "project" and it will open a desktop and multiple applications on it whose windows will snap into place. I'm not happy with it yet, but it feels somewhat closer to me to how it felt to use Amiga screens.