[Coco] Text Forground Color in DECB on HiRes Coco 3 with composite monitor.

[Rogelio Perea]

On Mon Aug 13 2018 <coco at jechar.ca> wrote:

>
>   I can set up a 80 column screen that is quite readable on a composite
>   monitor with.
>
>   OK
>    WIDTH 80
>    CLS 5
>
>   This gives me Dark "Blue or Black" test on a white screen.
>
>   I would like to experiment with other combinatiions
>

Back when I started using my CoCo 3 (College project write up) I only had a
B&W TV set to use with the thing for Word Processing mostly and some
programming. To make it easier on the eyes I would use the WIDTH 80:CLS 5
combination you list as the easy way to get black text on a white
background (at least  that's what I saw on the TV screen).

On a color composite monitor, to get more fancy I would use

PALETTE 0,0:CLS 1:ATTR 1,0 [ENTER] - for green letters on black background
PALETTE 0,0:CLS 1:ATTR 3,0 {ENTER} - for white-ish letters on black
background

It's better to enter the whole line(s) above in a single command string.
The palette command stores the black (0) color code in slot 0 of the CoCo 3
usable on screen palette, CLS 1 will clear the 80 column screen (or 40 one)
to the color specified in that palette and then ATTR sets the 'attribute'
for the text display. These are all commands rather well explained in the
CoCo 3 BASIC manual.

Of course hitting RESET or changing the palette assignments to RGB or CMP
will overwrite with the system defaults whatever change you manually do.

Experiment :-)


-- RP