Historical Color Palette

In Visual PRO/5 Revision 1.0, all SYSGUI windows automatically received a custom "color cube" palette to accurately display colors in bitmapped images. However, this leads to some problems. The first problem is that Microsoft's WIN32s products, Windows and Windows for Workgroups, can crash if focus is shifted between windows repeatedly, thus forcing many swift palette changes. The second problem is that colors in controls, which are always rendered in the stock system palette, often did not exactly match the colors in the window. For example, an attempt to create a light gray "3D-look" dialog box could lead to mismatched colors on some systems. As a result, the custom "color cube" palette is now optional, and by default is not used. In Visual PRO/5 Revision 1.01, SYSGUI windows normally inherit the stock system palette. If photographic bitmaps are displayed and the custom "color cube" palette is being used for better color accuracy, the window creation flag $00400000$ must be used.

Whenever a SYSGUI window with a custom palette gains focus, and the display has 256 colors or fewer, there might be some color "flashing" as focus shifts between windows. This behavior is normal and can also be seen with other applications that require accurate color displays. The best way to avoid this flashing is to use a display mode that permits more than 256 colors (usually 65,536 colors or 16M colors). Sometimes using simpler wallpaper or not using wallpaper can also help.