QT, VSG card, and Windows

>Dear Denis,
>Thanks a lot for the great functionality of QT.mex! It's been a real boon
>for my current project!
>Up 'til now I've been working exclusively with the VSG board (programming
>stimuli in C++) but it won't handle movies. I recently talked to the Robson
>who founded Cambridge Research Systems (maker of VSG) and he said they were
>thinking about porting some elements of the Toolbox to Windows. I think that
>would be really great, because by having a commercial partner you can have
>the resources for support, documentation, continued development, etc.
>without placing all the burden on scientists with other fish to fry. I would
>especially like to encourage CRS to port and develop the MEX files (esp.
>QT.MEX) as well because Matlab provides a development environment that's
>great for prototyping.
>If I can do anything to help, please let me know.
>Sincerely,
>Mike

dear mike

thanks for offering to help; i don't think there's much you can do right
now. it would be interesting to know how many people would like to run
psychtoolbox with Cambridge Research Systems' VSG card. their hardware
offers extra DAC resolution, which is very desirable.

Cambridge Research Systems (CRS) was founded by three robsons: tom,
richard, and john. tom and richard are brothers. john is the father, of
campbell and robson fame. tom specializes more in hardware, richard in
software, but i'm guessing you talked to tom.

i think that everyone sees it as natural that the VSG board at some point
become compatible with the psychtoolbox. we would be very happy to help
that happen. tom and i talked about it briefly at arvo, and he too is
attracted by the prospect, as i recall.

as you know from our web site, we have a rough early alpha version for
windows available now. not yet announced there, is that we have funding
from NIH to hire a full time programmer to support the psychtoolbox. i'm
in the process now of getting the ad out. this person's first task will
be to polish the windows port.

on the mac, we support all graphics devices that support apple's basic
required calls. in fact i don't know of any graphic display for mac that
doesn't work with our psychtoolbox. it's my impression that standards
have been looser in windows, but i'd expect that we'll support any
display that can show the desktop. i don't know if that criterion would
include the VSG, but we'll try to include VSG if it doesn't require too
much extra effort.

i'm very happy to hear that QT.mex is turning out to be useful. we'd love
to show off your work on our site if you have a snazzy demo.
<http://color.psych.ucsb.edu/psychtoolbox/intro.html>.

best

denis