Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!captkidd
From: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: System 7.0 speculations - Feature wishlist
Message-ID: <13238@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 3 Aug 89 20:30:41 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 36

Well, since everyone is talking about this, I might as well throw in my
$.02.  One thing I've noticed is that people are talking about how sluggish
the new font scheme can become at times.  The thing that Apple must
recognize is that the vast majority of users use (most of the time) 10-18
point fonts in 4 or 5 font families.  It seems to me that the thing to do
would be to permit the new fonts to have references to pre-stored bitmaps
in a few sizes.  While this might add another layer of complexity to the
font manager, I think it would significantly improve performance in 90% of
use.  The referenced bitmaps would store point *and* DPI information (ie
"This bitmap is 12 pt Helvetica for 72 dpi display."  Extending this a little,
there could be a utility that takes the outline fonts and produces bitmaps
for x-point size at y-dpi resolution, which would then allow the user to
customize their system bitmaps and optimize their system performance (based
upon which bitmaps they use the most).  Given this streamlining, I don't
think it would be unreasonable for users to expect slower performance on the
font manager when inserting 72-point Times in a pagemaker document.

If this is done, pre-stored bitmapped anti-aliased fonts would also be less
of a drain on the CPU when system 8 (probably more like system 10) comes
around, since common sizes would be stored in a manner similar to this.
I do agree that Apple should reserve more than 2 color entries in the CLUT
(4 sounds reasonable).  Finally, to restate something I said a while ago,
I hope the SE/30 is their last Macintosh with a 1-bit display.  A 16-greys
or even 256-greys wouldn't have added that much complexity (mostly memory),
and standardize their product line on a minimum platform that supports
multi-bit pixels.

Flame as you will, but make sure you have your asbestos suit handy if you do.

-Ivan

	"We live a contented life, as any fool can plainly see."
		"I can plainly see that!"
			-Groo the Wanderer

Internet: captkidd@athena.mit.edu