Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!iuvax!news!cse.nd.edu
From: flynn@cse.nd.edu (Patrick J. Flynn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: color NeXTstation (and Weight of Monitor!)
Summary: static color. ick.
Keywords: color NeXTstation 16 bit
Message-ID: <444@news.nd.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 90 15:52:04 GMT
References: <34@brazos.cs.utexas.edu> <5582@mace.cc.purdue.edu> <1990Sep24.053046.5143@wrl.dec.com>
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In article <1990Sep24.053046.5143@wrl.dec.com> kent@decwrl.dec.com (Christopher A. Kent) writes:
>With Display PostSCript, you don't deal with lookup tables any more.
>You pick from a fixed pallete -- the RGB (or CMYK) color space, and
>the interpreter renders your chosen color as closely as the hardware
>can do so. On a 16-bit NeXT, you get 4096 distinct colors in the
>destination color space. On a 32-bit, you get 2^24.

I attended *two* presentations before roll-out and was UNABLE to get a
straight answer to the question: `Does the 16-bit color system have a
12-bit, WRITABLE color map, or are there only 4 bits of intensity on
each gun?' In X-windows talk, is the color model `12-bit pseudo-color',
or `12-bit true-color'?  Either model gives you 4096 simultaneous
colors on-screen, but the true-color model (for example) only allows 16
gray values.  As an image-processing weenie, I would much rather have a
12-bit writable color map than a 12-bit static color palette.  Hell,
I'd rather have an *8*-bit color map than a 12-bit static color
palette.

Obligatory Rumor for Visualization people: I hear that OSC is porting
apE to NextStep.  Oughta look pretty sharp on the NextDim cube.

TTFN-Pat
--
Patrick J. Flynn, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Notre Dame 
flynn@cse.nd.edu  <--- best
flynn@cps.msu.edu <--- still works