Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!netcom!ergo
From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Hercules shrugged
Keywords: VGA
Message-ID: <15827@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 30 Oct 90 07:32:05 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: UESPA
Lines: 61

In <6841@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes:

>Greetings netters!

>Everyone seems so hyped up on color sVGA. Doesn't anyone do
>mono any more?

>As some of you know, I've been pretty much a Hercules mono
>man and am even (dare I say it) thinking of using it on my
>new 386. Gasp! Stone Age technology but so's the word proces-
>sor I use (WordStar 3.3). 

I share your prejudices:  90% of PC users just don't need color.
Looked at in terms of initial costs, Hercules would seem to be the
only choice for anybody on a budget.  After all, you can get a cheap
Herc. clone adapter *and* an amber monitor for less then you'd spend
on just a VGA card.  Which is why I've used nothing but Hercules for
the last 3 years.

All the same, I'll never buy another hercules-TTL set again, nor would
I recommend same to others.  Why?

(1) A lot of programmers, especial gamesters, shareware people, and
free software types, just assume that *everybody* has CGA
compatibility.  Run on a Hercules board, it may just not work, or it
may lock up your system.  All this for trivial stuff like cyan-colored
footnotes!

(2) Reason (1) is symptomatic of Hercules Inc.'s total inability to
deal with software problems.  Thus they've never got round to the
trivial chore of providing a hardware mod (or at least a TSR) that'd
make their card look like a CGA card, at least in text mode.  Thus
they've never provided programmers with the tools they needed to
program Hercules cards.

(3) Consequence of (2):  There's damn little software written for
Hercules cards.  It doesn't help that VGA keeps getting cheaper and
cheaper.

(4) My hardware gurus tell me that the TTL technology in
Hercules-compatible monitors is fundamentally flaky.  That's
consistent with my experience:  2 monitors destroyed by software
problems, a third by a flaky hercules clone card.  I'd like to develop
a little graphic software myself -- but if I make *one* little typo in
the code programming the card...   And I've heard stories of Trojan
Horse and virus software that does such things deliberately.

(5) One can now get a gray-scale 800x800 VGA setup for $300 total, or
a slightly lower resolution color setup for slightly more money.
Yes, that's twice what you'd spend for a Hercules setup, but figure in
the other costs and it begins to look like a bargain.


-- 

ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
netcom!ergo@apple.com			Silicon Valley, CA
{apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo

WISE SAYING NEEDED.  Must reflect positive human values.  Gentle humor a
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