Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!apple!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu!bob From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: alt.next Subject: Re: NeXT Message-ID: <24807@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 17 Oct 88 17:48:43 GMT References: <4431@polya.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science Lines: 41 In article gaynor@porthos.rutgers.edu (Silver) writes: >rokicki@polya.stanford.edu writes: >> - 17" monochrome monitor, providing 1120x832 pixels at two bits per >> pixel. (Two bits/pixel implies four gray levels, rather than >> two, and allows for richer graphics.) Monitor includes 8 bit >> codec for voice input and 16 bit > >Would one of you more studly graphics folks tell me the advantage to >doing things thus, as opposed to providing one-bit pixels at somewhat >finer resolution? Sufficient response will be answered in >summarization. They didn't do color on the first cut because there were more fundamental architectural things to do, and it had to get the first machine out the door *sometime* this decade. Their early development was on 1-bit monochrome systems. The head of the UI group noticed that he kept having to tell the hacquers "remember, this will be multi-bits someday!" to keep their code from unconsciously assuming that all the world is one bit deep. Look how hard the Mac folks had to twist things to make a color Toolkit - he asserted that if they thought in multi-bits per pixel from the start they could avoid the worst of the architectural flaws that would make color tough. But he had a hard time keeping tabs on every bit of display code to make sure it was easily expandable. So he went to the hardware group and persuaded them to make it 2 bits per pixel. Then he came back to the software group and said "guess what? We're two bits deep now!" It turns out that once you've generalized to any N (where N>1) bits per pixel, it's much easier to generalize to any other N (including 1). So the 2-bit screen is not only much more beautiful (snazzy antialiasing) but is an architectural exercise and a proof-of-concept that the machine can someday be extended to more bits per pixel with no great agony in the display software. -=- Zippy sez, --Bob Yow! It's some people inside the wall! This is better than mopping!