diff README.OS2 @ 1442:e3242177fe4a

Updated OS/2 build, yay!
author Sam Lantinga <slouken@libsdl.org>
date Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:30:21 +0000
parents 173c063d4f55
children 14717b52abc0
line wrap: on
line diff
--- a/README.OS2	Sun Feb 26 13:42:00 2006 +0000
+++ b/README.OS2	Sun Feb 26 19:30:21 2006 +0000
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 SDL on OS/2
 ===========
 
-Last updated on Oct 02, 2005.
+Last updated on Feb. 26, 2006.
 
 
 1. How to compile?
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@
 - The FSLib library
   (ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/SDL)
 
+First of all, you have to put the OS/2-specific Watcom makefiles into the
+source code tree by unzipping the file Watcom-OS2.zip here.  This will
+result in a Watcom.mif and a setvars.cmd file in this folder, and several
+Makefile.wat files in the src\ folder and in some of its subfolders.
+
 Please edit the second, fourth and fifth lines of setvars.cmd file
 to set the folders where the toolkit, the OW compiler and the FSLib are. 
 You won't need NASM yet (The Netwide Assembler), you can leave that line.
@@ -107,7 +112,59 @@
 
 
 
-6. Next steps...
+6. Proportional windows
+-----------------------
+
+For some SDL applications it can be handy to have proportional windows, so
+the windows will keep their aspect ratio when resized.
+This can be achieved in two ways:
+
+- Before starting the given SDL application, set the
+  SDL_USE_PROPORTIONAL_WINDOW environment variable to something, e.g.:
+
+  SET SDL_USE_PROPORTIONAL_WINDOW=1
+  dosbox.exe
+
+- If you have a HOME environment variable set, then SDL will look for a file
+  in there called ".sdl.proportionals". If that file contains the name of the
+  currently running SDL executable, then that process will have proportional
+  windows automatically.
+
+  Please note that this file is created automatically with default values
+  at the first run.
+
+
+
+7. Audio in SDL applications
+----------------------------
+
+Audio effects are one of the most important features in games. Creating audio
+effects in sync with the game and without hickups and pauses in the audio are
+very important things.
+
+However there are multithreaded SDL applications that have tight loops as their
+main logic loop. This kills performance in OS/2, and takes too much CPU from
+other threads in the same process, for example from the thread to create the 
+sound effects.
+
+For this reason, the OS/2 port of SDL can be instructed to run the audio thread
+in high priority, which makes sure that there will be enough time for the 
+processing of the audio data.
+
+At default, SDL/2 runs the audio thread at ForegroundServer+0 priority. Well 
+written and well behaving SDL applications should work well in this mode.
+For other applications, you can tell SDL/2 to run the audio thread at 
+TimeCritical priority by setting an env.variable before starting the SDL app:
+
+    SET SDL_USE_TIMECRITICAL_AUDIO=1
+
+Please note that this is a bit risky, because if the SDL application runs a
+tight infinite loop in this thread, this will make the whole system 
+unresponsive, so use it with care, and only for applications that need it!
+
+
+
+8. Next steps...
 ----------------
 
 Things to do:
@@ -119,7 +176,7 @@
 
 
 
-7. Contacts
+9. Contacts
 -----------
 
    You can contact the developers for bugs:
@@ -131,3 +188,90 @@
    Notice however that SDL/2 is 'in development' stage so ... if you want to help,
 please, be our guest and contact us!
 
+
+
+10. Changelog of the OS/2 port
+------------------------------
+
+Version 1.2 - 2006-02-26  - Doodle
+ - Updated the official SDL version with the OS/2 specific changes.
+ - Added support for real unicode keycode conversion.
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2006-01-20  - Doodle
+ - Added support for selectively using timecritical priority for
+   audio threads by SDL_USE_TIMECRITICAL_AUDIO environment variable.
+   (e.g.: 
+    SET SDL_USE_TIMECRITICAL_AUDIO=1
+    dosbox.exe
+   )
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-12-22  - Doodle
+ - Added support for proportional SDL windows.
+   There are two ways to have proportional (aspect-keeping) windows for
+   a given SDL application: Either set the SDL_USE_PROPORTIONAL_WINDOW
+   environment variable to something before starting the application
+   (e.g.: 
+    SET SDL_USE_PROPORTIONAL_WINDOW=1
+    dosbox.exe
+   )
+   or, if you have the HOME environment variable set, then SDL.DLL will
+   create a file in that directory called .sdl.proportionals, and you can
+   put there the name of executable files that will be automatically made
+   proportional.
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-10-14  - Doodle
+ - Enabled Exception handler code in FSLib to be able to restore original
+   desktop video mode in case the application crashes.
+ - Added the missing FSLib_Uninitialize() call into SDL.
+   (The lack of it did not cause problems, but it's cleaner this way.)
+ - Fixed a mouse problem in Fullscreen mode where any mouse click
+   re-centered the mouse.
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-10-09  - Doodle
+ - Implemented window icon support
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-10-03  - Doodle
+ - Reworked semaphore support again
+ - Tuned thread priorities
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-10-02  - Doodle
+ - Added support for custom mouse pointers
+ - Fixed WM_CLOSE processing: give a chance to SDL app to ask user...
+ - Added support for MMX-accelerated audio mixers
+ - Other small fixes
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2005-09-12  - Doodle
+ - Small fixes for DosBox incorporated into public release
+ - Fixed semaphore support (SDL_syssem.c)
+ - Fixed FSLib to have good clipping in scaled window mode,
+   and to prevent occasional desktop freezes.
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2004-09-08a - Caetano
+	- Improved joystick support (general verifications about hardware).
+	- Added support up to 8 buttons in 2 axes joysticks and 6 buttons in 3 axes joysticks.
+	- Added support to environment variable SDL_OS2_JOYSTICK to specify a joystick.
+	- Improved Joystick test to handle every type of joystick and display only relevant information.
+	- Merged with Doodle 2004-09-08
+	- Little tid up in README.OS2
+	- Added explanation about SDL_OS2_JOYSTICK environment variable on README.OS2
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2004-09-07 - Caetano
+	- Merged with changes in headers for GCC compiling.
+	- Added Joystick support using basic IBM GAME$ support, allowing it to work with all joystick drivers since OS/2 2.1.
+	- Improved joystick detection (hacked!). OS/2 do not allow real joystick detection, so... 
+	- Modified makefile in test to compile "testjoystick". Anyway, it's useless, since it seems to cause a lot of trouble in OS/2 (because os video routines, not Joystick support).
+	- Created separated Joystick test program to test only joystick functions.
+	- Improved joystick auto-centering.
+	- Improved the coordinate correction routine to use two scale factors for each axis.
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2004-07-05 - Caetano
+	- Corrected the time returned by status in CDROM support (it was incorrect)
+	- Added the testcdrom.c and corrected the linking directive (it was causing an error)
+
+Version 1.2.7 - 2004-07-02a - Caetano
+	- Corrected a little problem in a comment at SDL-1.2.7\test\torturethread.c, line 18 (missing */, nested comment)
+	- Added CDROM support to tree (SDL-1.2.7\src\cdrom\os2\SDL_syscdrom.c)
+	- Modified makefile (SDL-1.2.7\src\makefiles.wat and SDL-1.2.7\watcom.mif) to build with CDROM support
+	- Added the "extra" SDL_types.h forgotten in 2004-07-02 version.
+
+<End-Of-File>