Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: The Amiga's Future
Message-ID: <50206@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 9 Jun 91 03:26:48 GMT
References: <5092@orbit.cts.com> <1991Jun8.012801.22773@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp
Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 32

In article <1991Jun8.012801.22773@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:

>  BZZZT. You can't change the scanrates on a Mac as far as I know of.
>The Amiga can easily go into PAL or NTSC mode, it can also output
>15 or 31 khz (requires multisync), I've even seen new monitor files

With a small program and the right cable, you can get greyscale NTSC from
the standard Mac video card.

>  In addition to all this, on the Amiga you can change/smooth scroll
>the bitmap pointers easily. You can change bitmaps anywhere on the
>screen via copper(hence the Amiga pulldown screens, and the new
>auto-scroll screens in 2.0 which let you have Mega-big screens like
>1024x1024). This is why the Amiga is thee "video computer." It's display
>is awesomely flexible. In fact, I've seen demos onthe Amiga that
>switch between hi/lo res in the middle of the screen(imagine a
>lo-res background with lots of action going on with a small hi-res
>mini-screen in the center).

I don't know enough about the Amiga to follow some of this stuff.  Barring
videdo, the Mac screen handling is pretty flexible.  In monochrome mode, I
can use a piece of software that will give me a virtual display that is
very large.  I'm pretty sure it will do 4000x4000.  Your monitor acts as a
window onto that virtual display space.

If I upgrade my machine (SE/30) with color, I simply add a card and the monitor,
and I can define either monitor as a window on the virtual display in any
way I'd like (side by side, diagonally, one on top of the other.)  With a 
Mac II, I could add 6 2 page 24 bit displays (why, I don't know.)  You'd have
windows onto a pretty large display space, and your operations move smoothly
from monitor to monitor.  Virtually all Mac programs will work with this 
resource in that way.