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From: info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac)
Newsgroups: ont.micro.mac
Subject: Re: flame about color Macs...
Message-ID: <4289@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-May-84 10:57:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.4289
Posted: Tue May 15 10:57:41 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 15-May-84 11:40:42 EDT
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From: uw-beaver!ihnp4!utzoo!henry@Berkeley
Date: 13 May 84 01:19:31 CDT (Sun)
To: info-mac@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
Subject: Re: flame about color Macs...

I'm reminded of something that Rob Pike, inventor of the Blit, said
when he was asked about color.  He said (roughly), "I don't think
we know how to use small amounts of color well enough to make it
worthwhile".  I think he's right.  Color is dynamite for games, and
it's important for a very few specialized applications like VLSI
design, but otherwise it's not *at all* obvious that it's worth
the money and the performance penalty.  (Yes, there is a performance
penalty when you have to update four times as many bits to change an
area of the screen.)

Most of the more mundane uses of color that I've seen demonstrated
have been flashy sales gimmicks rather than truly useful techniques.
Having the headers of a spreadsheet in a different color from the
cells does not strike me as worthwhile.  In fact, it makes me retch.
A screen filled with gratuitous and unnecessary color changes is
worse than black and white.

*Real* color, at least 8 bits for each of red, green, and blue, is
a different story.  But that is much more expensive than monochrome,
and again many applications don't need it.

Face it:  color is a fad.  Its modest usefulness is being completely
obscured by marketing hype.  "Everybody knows" that monochrome is
obsolete and you've *just* *got* *to* *have* color, or your computer
is clearly a relic of the dark ages and positively an *antique*...
Gah.  I'll take high-resolution monochrome any day.

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry