Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!ucsd!nosc!baron!ryptyde!dant
From: dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: The Amiga's Future
Message-ID: <35@ryptyde.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jun 91 23:32:25 GMT
References: <5092@orbit.cts.com>
Reply-To: dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy)
Organization: Ryptyde Timesharing
Lines: 30

Responding to the following:

"dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) writes:
>Responding to the following:
>
>"can you name any other system that has a totaly programmable display?"
>
>I can. The Macintosh! :-)
 
 
oh really?  how is that?  The mac display is a standard 72 dpi.  no other
resolution modes."

You obviously aren't familiar with the Macintosh graphics device. Macintosh
video is much more programmable than the Amiga's will ever be, for very good
reasons. There IS no "standard" dpi. No video "standards", or modes, are
needed in the Macintosh community.  Any monitor can be of any resolution,
any number of pixels, independant of size, and the Macintosh will recognize
it as a grid from pixel to pixel and uses integer to draw to screen. This is
why you can attach two or more monitors to a Mac and use them as one monitor.
That is, you can logically "connect" the two monitors so that they act as
one larger monitor. This is totally programmable. A good example is an 
Extension that tells the OS that the screen is really smaller than it appears,
shaving off some pixels for what it does (install a "program dock"). All
applications then see that some of the monitor space is "not there" or
reserved, and so fits its windows into what it's given. This is in contrast
to how Amiga's and IBMs view their monitors. On one of these machines, if
you're given a monitor with more pixels, it doesn't "zoom out" and give more
room. Instead, the picture you DO see (which doesn't change) is seen at 
higher quality.