Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!xylogics!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: OS cost component of workstation
Message-ID: <2858@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 8 Nov 90 16:35:48 GMT
References: <2840@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1990Nov6.222057.17797@ico.isc.com> <239@csinc.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
Lines: 42

In article <239@csinc.UUCP> rpeglar@csinc.UUCP (Rob Peglar) writes:

| 1kx768?  It is a myth that 1kx768 resolution is necessary for X.  A prime
| example is television;  very low resolution, but the images are spectacular.

  Yes, and anyone who has every tried to put even 80x25 on a TV knows
you can't read it.

| Why?  Analog color.  Learning from this example, the key is not resolution,
| but color ability.  The brain is capable, relatively speaking, of seeing
| many more colors (distinguishing) than very small dots.

  Unfortunately drawings and text are composed of very small dots.

| 640x480x256 is marginal for adequate imaging.  640x480x1k is better,
| 640x480x16k is virtually indistinguishable (oxymoron, i know) from
| television.  Sound odd?  Perhaps.  

  And for text and line drawings you need a total of two colors,
preferably with high contrast to one another.

| Resolution is key if one is drawing huge, 2D (e.g. AEC-type) drawings,
| and you want to be able to zoom into the drawing at factors like 1x10^15
| and such.  For X, color ability and monitor capability is key, not
| resolution. 

  You need 1024x768 just to get two regular "glass tty" screens of 80x25
up. Many people like 132 columns (you can tell by their C code and
postings). Then you need room for icons, so that takes some more. The
low resolution solution is to first drop from 9x16 to 8x13, losing
serifs in the process, then to 8x8, losing decenders, and looking like a
1978 dot matrix printer.

  Most people use X for mostly text, and anything less than 9x16 is
going to lead to eyestrain (maybe a well chosen 9x14). And this on a big
screen. After looking at what people do with their X color capability, I
think that most people don't make use of it more than 10% of the time
(having pastel borders is not making use of it in any productive sense,
unless the border color means something).
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
      The Twin Peaks Halloween costume: stark naked in a body bag